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IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs Oracle Audit Vault vs Trustwave DbProtect comparison

 

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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Database Security category, the mindshare of IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is 32.0%, up from 30.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Audit Vault is 16.8%, up from 14.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Trustwave DbProtect is 4.5%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Security
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmer Faisel Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers mature agents, compliance reporting and reliable database security
The solution should allow the data to shift to a centralized repository with elastic servers and big data infrastructure. If a customer searches for old logs for retention purposes, there are limitations on appliances once they are set with specific hardware, so they can only be changed by uninstalling or reinstalling the hardware. The solution's aggregator feature allows data aggregation, but for instance, if a customer wants a project ready in two years, having an Elasticsearch in DB or the capacity to store huge amounts of data would be beneficial in data investigation or evaluation at an affordable cost. Some AI features should be added to IBM Security Guardium Data Protection. For example, the AI features implemented in the solution can be anomaly detection or suspicious activity identification.
Yves Moro - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides good security, and is helpful for auditing the data and seeing what's happening
Currently, you need two servers: one for Audit Vault and one for the firewall. If they can combine them into one server, it will be great because it is costly to have two servers. It will also make its installation easier. I have heard that in the new version, there will be only one server for both. I use it only for security purposes, and they can continue to improve it with more security tools and features. It should be powerful like FortiGate. When it becomes powerful like FortiGate, people will only go for this solution for their infrastructure. Their support could be faster.
Marcelo Raza - PeerSpot reviewer
A tool that offers a proper view and division of all databases while also allowing users to do continuous monitoring
I have seen that the tool's installation phase has some problems regarding the versions, specifically the version of SQL. Trustwave DbProtect doesn't accept some versions of SQL. Some credentials when you are installing give some problems, but all of them did pass through the installation phase but gave a certain amount of hard work to be done during the installation phase. The aforementioned area needs to be considered for improvement. The pain points with Trustwave DbProtect were about the installation and problems with the different versions not being accepted. A more compatible version of the product with other databases and operating systems should be possible.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"Efficiency is key and IBM Guardium provides information in a heartbeat, but protects the data with military grade encryption."
"One of the most valuable features is the accelerator. It has a predefined report for PCI SOX compliance and other compliances."
"Guardium lets you centrally manage aggregators and collectors."
"The most valuable feature for me, in my role as systems DBA, is the expediting of internal and external audits."
"The tool helps detect invalid login attempts within a specific time frame."
"Compliance Quick Start – Quick, GUI, step-by-step guide to automate compliance and give the customer a quick ROI."
"The vulnerability assessment is a valuable feature."
"It has provided us with a unique opportunity to automate risk discovery."
"The feature that I have found most valuable is that it can help us secure our databases."
"Our clients can see all of their past actions or the wrong activity done on the network. We can load the diagnostics for the business."
"Our client was scheduled to take a year and a half to set up compliance, but by deploying this product they were able to do the compliance reports within three months."
"This solution acts as a complete data warehouse for our audit data."
"Out-of-the-box policies ensure our compliance with standards like SOX, ISO 27001, and so on."
"The critical event alerts and reporting features have greatly reduced loss of man hours that would have been spent on going through the whole audit event logs."
"It has reduced the stress of collecting database event logs in silos from each database."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that you can have a good view which is provided with a proper division of all your databases, which you can see in Trustwave DbProtect."
"This solution helps our clients to monitor their database use, and detect violations of the policy."
"Transfer and vulnerability scanning are the most valuable features of this product."
 

Cons

"Personally, I would not recommend this product."
"Guardium could be improved in the area of data encryption."
"The backup and recovery is very resource-hungry and requires a huge amount of storage capacity."
"An improvement would be to make the pricing relative in terms of regions."
"The deployment is complex and requires expertise to deploy."
"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."
"Sometimes the performance is not good, and also sometimes we have sudden bugs causing difficulties."
"They could enable the out-of-the-box feature to track application user activity."
"Currently, you need two servers: one for Audit Vault and one for the firewall. If they can combine them into one server, it will be great because it is costly to have two servers. It will also make its installation easier. I have heard that in the new version, there will be only one server for both."
"Customized reporting is something that we are struggling with, and it is quite tough for us."
"One feature that is missing is the ability to have a secret server that is always encrypted."
"We would like to see the ability to administer and manage the solution through Enterprise Manager 13c, and development of the dashboards that are generally missing."
"The support could improve."
"They should simplify the integration and work with different vendors and mechanisms."
"I hear from many people that say IBM Guardian is better than Oracle Audit Vault when it comes to performance. IBM Guardian works transparently in the database, but Oracle Audit Vault consumes some ratios on the server."
"Some of our customers were asking about latency when the application wants to get to the database."
"The product does not have encryption or data masking."
"We have not been able to integrate this product with a lot of standard incident response solutions, so an open API would help in this regard."
"I have seen that the tool's installation phase has some problems regarding the versions, specifically the version of SQL."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product's pricing is reasonable and affordable. It is in the moderate range."
"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."
"One of the deployments that I know of had three databases, and the yearly fees are approximately $50,000 USD."
"Reasonable cost but could be lower."
"I would suggest to review the type of data, need for security, and if the organizational structure needs the options IBM Guardium provides."
"IBM Guardium Data Protection charges you based on the number of users, e.g. based on the number of licenses, and it's either on a per-license or a per-data basis."
"The cost depends on the number of databases. You can purchase advanced licenses, but the standard license is calculated based on the number of databases you have to onboard."
"​If you are researching this type of solution, work with IBM."
"This solution is definitely not expensive, and it is a small fraction of the overall database licensing costs."
"For the bank, the license was $48,000 last time. That was the licensing for the bank on just one license."
"The licensing cost is about $360,000, annually."
"Oracle can be an expensive solution depending on the options and user needs."
"The licensing fees, including support, are approximately $5,000 USD per database, per year."
"I rate the pricing a five on a scale from one to ten, where one is the lowest and ten is the highest."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
30%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
31%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
7%
Retailer
6%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
11%
Healthcare Company
10%
Insurance Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
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, co...
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 enterpr...
What do you like most about IBM Security Guardium Data Protection?
The features I like are the robust policies, which allow us to create customized monitoring based on specific activit...
What do you like most about Oracle Audit Vault?
Oracle Audit Vault has a lot of great features, but what I find most valuable is the database firewall.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Audit Vault?
I would rate the costliness of Oracle Audit Vault as a seven out of ten. It is a bit expensive.
What needs improvement with Oracle Audit Vault?
The performance of Oracle Audit Vault could be improved, especially in handling large data collections and generating...
What do you like most about Trustwave DbProtect?
The most valuable feature of the solution is that you can have a good view which is provided with a proper division o...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Trustwave DbProtect?
Price-wise, Trustwave DbProtect falls in the mid-range category in Portugal. Many solutions similar to Trustwave DbPr...
What needs improvement with Trustwave DbProtect?
I have seen that the tool's installation phase has some problems regarding the versions, specifically the version of ...
 

Also Known As

InfoSphere Guardium, Guardium, IBM Guardium
Audit Vault
Application Security DbProtect
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Abu Dhabi Department of Finance, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health, Educational Testing Service, Ryohin Keikaku Co. Ltd., SPC Brasil, REDISA, Qatar Olympic Committee, Seneca College, Hunan Social Insurance Management and Service Bureau,
Pax World Investments, Crest Savings Bank, Magnolia Hotels
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM, Imperva, Oracle and others in Database Security. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.