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IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs IDERA SQL Secure comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Security Guardium Data ...
Ranking in Database Security
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IDERA SQL Secure
Ranking in Database Security
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Database Security category, the mindshare of IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is 26.5%, down from 27.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IDERA SQL Secure is 2.4%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Security Guardium Data Protection26.5%
IDERA SQL Secure2.4%
Other71.1%
Database Security
 

Featured Reviews

HA
Senior Business Development Executive at Digitaltrack
Centralized monitoring has improved audit readiness and streamlines investigations of data access
IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is a strong platform, but there are a few areas where I think it could be improved. One area is alert tuning and prioritization. Large environments can generate a significant number of alerts, and while the platform provides good visibility, reducing noise and automatically highlighting the highest-risk events would help security teams work more efficiently. Another area is ease of administration. As environments become more complex with cloud, hybrid, and on-premises databases, managing policies and configurations can require significant effort. Simplifying some of those workflows could reduce the operational overhead for administration. I would also like to see deeper automation and more advanced analytic capabilities. The security industry as a whole is moving toward faster threat detection and automated response, and having more built-in intelligence to identify unusual behavior with less manual tuning would be valuable. A couple of additional areas come to mind regarding needed improvements for IBM Security Guardium Data Protection. Integration is one of them. IBM Security Guardium Data Protection integrates with a variety of security tools, but as organizations adopt more cloud-native platforms and multicloud environments, smoother integration and simpler deployment processes would be beneficial. Many security teams are managing dozens of tools today, so reducing integration complexity can save a lot of operational effort. From a usability perspective, some administration and reporting tasks could be more intuitive, especially for new users. The platform is feature-rich, which is a strength, but it can also create a learning curve. Regarding support, my experience has generally been positive, but complex issues can sometimes require coordination across multiple teams before they are fully resolved. One feature I appreciate about IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is the detailed audit trail that IBM Security Guardium Data Protection maintains. When investigating an issue, having a historical record of database activity can save a lot of time and provide the context needed to understand what happened. That is especially useful for compliance and forensic investigations. As for a wish-list item, I would like to see even more intelligent alert correlation and risk prioritization. A challenge across the security industry is that teams often deal with a large number of alerts from different tools, and determining which ones require immediate attention can still be time-consuming. Although IBM Security Guardium Data Protection already provides strong monitoring capabilities, more automated context and prioritization could help security teams focus on the highest-risk events faster.
it_user530130 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Enginner at a tech company with 51-200 employees
It provides printable reports and security configuration advice.
We were about to receive a group level audit when we deployed Idera SQL Secure. In a previous audit, we had received some bad ratings and advice on security for our SQL Server instances. Idera SQL Secure comes bundled with the best practices rules, advice and polices from Microsoft and other standards organizations. It is able to take snapshots of the current state of the servers for which it was configured to monitor, match that state against these best practice rules, and present you with a report. With that report, you can take action on what is right or wrong. With this tool at hand, we were able to fix all of our issues, but there were a few which didn't apply to our specific case. Furthermore, our Information Security Officer and internal auditing department are now able to monitor better and have a clear picture on the security state of our SQL Server instances at any point in time.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It has made us more responsive and more productive, more efficient."
"IBM Guardium Data Protection is very good at keeping your database secure."
"We have integrated IBM Guardium​ with IBM Watson Curator. They access Curator to identify and correlate other actions the user is doing to determine if this is a legitimate action or not."
"There are different modules but the most valuable ones are firewalling and masking. Additionally, the auditing of the entire database is helpful, which includes all the activity of the database users and administrators. We can monitor everything and log as well."
"Our main focus for IBM Guardium is to support security initiatives and compliance policies within our organization. We use the DPD product for monitoring, especially for GDPR, SOX regulations and, of course, the vulnerability assessment that we use to make sure we're keeping up with our patches, making sure things are configured, making sure we're following the best practices."
"The most valuable features of this product are activity monitoring on the database servers, discovery capabilities, and vulnerability scanning."
"Helps us define and monitor critical data in the environment, even when stored in RDBMS, big data, or unstructured files."
"I think IMB's technical support is good."
"Shut up and pay."
 

Cons

"Sometimes the connectors to the databases need to be manually updated and we have to configure them again, which is something that should be improved."
"We have had some issues with patches breaking things unexpectedly in our environments."
"The backup and recovery is very resource-hungry and requires a huge amount of storage capacity."
"Technical support is unsatisfactory."
"The technical support is very poor."
"Initial setup is very complex. Once you start interacting with people's databases, they get very hesitant. Then, the amount of social tasks to socialize the solution ensuring people are comfortable with it became a much heavier lift."
"Initially, from 32-bit to 64-bit was a nightmare, but the latest 64-bit versions are pretty straightforward."
"The user interface could be improved and modernized."
"Usability and installation procedure could be made easier."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product's pricing is reasonable and affordable. It is in the moderate range."
"Guardium has not saved us time or money."
"Reasonable cost but could be lower."
"The price of Guardium is higher than the main competitor, Imperva. In addition, it's complex as the calculation of the licensing is done by Processor Value Unit (PVU). However, before purchasing a DAP solution, it is important to analyze specific points to evaluate the cost-benefit of each tool. For example: Does the environment to be monitored have mainframes? If so, it's a point for Guardium. If not, a point for Imperva. Note: IBM is looking into a new licensing policy and reducing the price of Guardium."
"The price of the solution could be better."
"We haven't talked much about pricing and licencing. But it is not cheap for sure"
"For IBM Guardium, licensing is very simple and straightforward. There are no issues I can speak of."
"Its cost is good. With the new metric of licensing, such as PDO not being available now, customers are expecting a good price for the solution."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise44
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

How does IBM Guardium Data Protection compare with Imperva SecureSphere Database Security?
IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is a solution for database security from IBM that gives complete visibility, control, and analysis to secure sensitive data and comply with regulations. IBM S...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Guardium Data Protection?
I don't remember the exact prices, but Guardium is an expensive tool because it is targeted towards corporate enterprises.
What needs improvement with IBM Security Guardium Data Protection?
IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is a strong platform, but there are a few areas where I think it could be improved. One area is alert tuning and prioritization. Large environments can generat...
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Also Known As

InfoSphere Guardium, Guardium, IBM Guardium
SQL Secure
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Charles Schwab; Old National Bank; Sharp; Premera; HomeServer USA; Target Australia Pyt Ltd.; Skygen USA; South African National Blood Service
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM, Imperva, Oracle and others in Database Security. Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.