IBM Security Guardium Data Protection Valuable Features
DP
David Plazer
Chief Executive Officer at Kipustec
The most valuable features, in my opinion, included the alerts and protections for specific tables and fields. The solution was not complicated to manage. It is a very important solution for security and compliance, ensuring we did not need any alternative option. It is a compliant solution, making it necessary for us.
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MM
Muhammad Misbah
RETAIL BANKING AND AML/KYC MANAGER at National Bank of Pakistan
Guardium is easily integrated with other IBM solutions, a significant advantage and a key reason we chose Guardium. Both platforms share the IBM infrastructure, enhancing compatibility and integration. Additionally, Guardium offers a vulnerability analyzer, which is another compelling feature of the platform.
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Ahmer Faisel Khan
Director | CTO at COMMTEL
One of the customer's major concerns is monitoring local users; installation of the agent is necessary. Once the agent is installed on the DB, users expect the server to operate without crashing or restarting. The maturity of the agent is the most valuable feature of the solution.
I believe IBM Security Guardium Data Protection has been available since 2004, so it has become a mature product. In our organization, we would recommend IBM Security Guardium Data Protection as the top product to others, wherever database security is concerned. I would overall rate the solution an eight out of ten. I believe the solution must be upgraded further in accordance with emerging technologies such as AI.
Buyer's Guide
IBM Security Guardium Data Protection
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about IBM Security Guardium Data Protection. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
861,481 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Jared Ochieng
Information Technology Security Specialist at infoark
It can help with PCI compliance. It includes features like data masking, especially during queries, which supports compliance efforts. The tool also performs compliance and audit checks and allows auditors to generate ad hoc compliance reports. This helps guide organizations on areas for improvement.
View full review »
reviewer2521287
Cyber Security Analyst at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
The most valuable feature is the visualization of data and the ability to monitor our databases. We regularly use it to send logs to QRadar, which is also a significant benefit.
View full review »
Farkhund Abbas
Internet Security Specialist at National Bank of Pakistan
What I like about IBM Guardium Data Protection is that some of its features were deployed by collectors during the installation phase. The solution has collector and aggregator features, license installation, and even server patches that you won't find in other security providers. I like the collector-aggregator capabilities of IBM Guardium Data Protection where you install each component on separate servers, then on the aggregator, you collect all the logs on a central server or central console.
View full review »
Usman Rasool
VP - Head Enterprise Technology Infrastructure at MCB Islamic Bank Ltd.
I like the reporting mechanism. It's very good.
View full review »VT
Viswanath Tharigonda
Inforomatica tech lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
If anyone is trying to access unauthorized data, it sends out an immediate alert to those concerned.
View full review »
Olawale Ayuba
Head Management GRC and Privacy Solution at a tech consulting company with 11-50 employees
The risk spotter which helps to get insight into user activities
The monitoring of Heterogeneous DBs
Entitlement Reports which helps to gain insight on user creation and privilege escalation.
Being an IBM product it offers data security capabilities with robust features. Over the years, it has satisfactorily met the requirements of our customers which makes it a very reliable and versatile solution.
View full review »
MUHAMMADNADEEM1
Deputy Director at Board Of Revenue
The tool helps detect invalid login attempts within a specific time frame.
View full review »
Alaeddin Awwad
Manager - Security Solutions at Mannai
Data encryption is a good feature and I also like the data masking functions. This is a technically strong solution.
View full review »reviewer2590284
Owner at a retailer with 51-200 employees
It is very easy to obtain reports and manage the reporting interface. It also supports various platforms like SQL, IBM database, and Oracle.
View full review »reviewer2543652
Jefe De Continuidad Operacional at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees
The most valuable features of Guardium are its ability to discover data more efficiently compared to competitors and its comprehensive platform with many features. We appreciate its ease of implementation and the local support available for the product.
View full review »
Peter Arabomen
Security Engineering, Team Lead at Fidelity Bank Plc
The features I like are the robust policies, which allow us to create customized monitoring based on specific activities.
Also, the dynamic encryption and masking functionality is interesting. And the vulnerability assessment feature is comprehensive; we can scan for specific vulnerabilities.
View full review »SL
Dr. Sajid Latif
Guardium Administrator at Interactive Group
It is a flexible tool for enterprises. It protects sensitive data and blocks unauthorized access to the data.
View full review »KA
Khaled AlKadi
Sales Director at Jordan Business Systems
Guardium is a robust solution that provides reliable results. Customers are satisfied with its ease of use and switch from competing products to Guardium. One customer implemented Guardium within two months and found it fully secured their databases. Before Guardium, they faced implementation issues and unreliable monitoring reports. Now, they are expanding Guardium to protect more databases.
Ile Ristov
Sales Manager at InTec System
The most valuable feature of the solution for the customers is the monitoring and full log of the database activity of privileged users. It includes everything happening on the network and locally on the database server.
View full review »
AsifIqbal
Chief Information Security Officer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The vulnerability assessment is a valuable feature for us.
View full review »Peter Arabomen
Security Engineering, Team Lead at Fidelity Bank Plc
I like IBM Guardium Data Protection because of its good performance. The resources aren't used up to the detriment of the application. It's robust, and we don't really have any serious downtime on it. The support for the application is also okay.
View full review »reviewer1633014
DBA at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
We use the GBDI feature which is very helpful for our needs. The centralization of data is probably the most valuable feature because we span multiple database technologies.
View full review »AsifIqbal
Chief Information Security Officer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The solution is very good at marking.
The initial setup is quite easy.
The solution offers trouble-free access.
View full review »SW
Suhail Wagle
Sr. Network Specialist at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
The purpose of EBM Guardium is to monitor database activity and who is accessing it. This is the most valuable feature.
We have privileged users, like the DBAs, who are most often the ones accessing the database. We also have web services and application services that talk to the database. With IBM Guardium Data Protection we can see who the previous users were and what web or server actually connected to the data business.
Secondly, any changes done by the DBAs are recorded so we know that the DB has changed in the data structure, scheme, or creation of a table or drop of a table.
View full review »Ahmer Faisel Khan
Director | CTO at COMMTEL
The most valuable features have been how easy it is to deploy and use, as well as the comprehensive monitoring options. These are a few things that customers like most about this product.
View full review »MH
mehrab hussain
Junior Software Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
IBM Guardium Data Protection is very good at keeping your database secure.
View full review »reviewer1458435
DBA Dept. Manager at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
The solution is easy to use.
We've found the solution to be very stable.
The product has proven to be flexible.
The system, overall, is quite reliable.
View full review »
Md Saiful Hyder
AGM, Enterprise Solutions at Omgea Exim Ltd
IBM Guardium Data Protection has better integration options than most of the leading competitors on the market, and the price is always better.
View full review »VD
Victor Díaz Bañales
Socio Director at RAMDIA
One of the most valuable features is the accelerator. It has a predefined report for PCI SOX compliance and other compliances.
View full review »QN
Quan Ngo
Sales leader at EFH
The most valuable feature I have found is the performance of client monitoring. The other competitors are unable to do this.
View full review »AF
AhmedFattah
CyberSecurity Leader Specialist at KLNCIT
Guardium lets you centrally manage aggregators and collectors.
View full review »reviewer1131528
Technical Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
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.
View full review »reviewer1681524
Security Specialist at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
I like Guardium's document protection features.
View full review »reviewer1360929
Information Security Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The most valuable features are the reporting and data-level access control.
The interface is easy to use and the learning curve is not very steep.
View full review »reviewer1290021
VP - Enterprise Security & Cloud Business at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The ease of deployment is a key feature of this solution.
View full review »AV
AjaiVictoria
Information Technology Consultant at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees
The most valuable features are data loss prevention and data protection.
From the perspective of analysis and prevention, this product is pretty accurate.
View full review »Securead44
Trusted Security Advisor at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
This solution has a lot of functionality and there are hundreds of use cases for it. We are talking about the database, which is the main business core for the company that holds all of the data. The features used by any one customer are dependent on their requirements and the relevant regulations.
That said, IBM Guardium has a lot of capabilities, even compared to other solutions on the market. It can do everything from detection to prevention, and it provides reports about this as well.
View full review »it_user649194
IT Security Analyst at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
- Audit Process Builder – Workflow generator to enhance audit tasks and compliance workflows.
- Compliance Quick Start – Quick, GUI, step-by-step guide to automate compliance and give the customer a quick ROI.
SM
Sidney Monteiro
Information Security Analyst at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
The most valuable feature is using the capture operation mode “S-TAP/K-TAP agent”, because all activities in the database are captured, including direct access to the database server by privileged users. This is useful because, even if the database server logs were deleted, the Guardium Collector has already stored such data to enable traceability of access.
View full review »it_user841920
Business Development Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
- Encryption
- Data activity monitoring
- It has a set of modules.
- I compliment with Optum for a data masking solution.
it_user844488
Security Analyst at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Being able to go back to see what people are touching, and when they are touching it, then look at the risk of who is touching what and how they are touching the data. This will give us a better understanding of how people interact with our data.
We do not use many of the advance features, but we will soon. We are looking at Sensitive Data and User Behavior Analytics.
View full review »it_user841977
Sr. Security Engineer
In terms of advanced features, we are using the Database Activity Monitoring and the Vulnerability Assessment as well. Now we are thinking of using the GDPR because that's going to be a compliance as well. So some but not all of them.
View full review »it_user844479
People Leader Of Cyber Strategy And Solutions at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Its ability to find data. Once I find data, I can leverage it to perform specific select statements against PII data and do smarter controls rather than monitoring the entire database.
View full review »it_user261765
-- at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The ability to collect the data without database administrators being able to modify it.
View full review »it_user844467
VP Systems Engg at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The ability to do its job properly, database activity monitoring for insider threat. That's primarily why we use it and it does a good job.
Among the advanced features, we use Vulnerability Assessments. We are in the process of using Discovery Classification as well.
View full review »it_user842901
Data Architect at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The architecture and the robustness of the data it produces.
Regarding advanced features, I'm using enforcement in the policies. In the future I would like to do more classification.
View full review »it_user842892
Cyber Security Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The Audit Trail.
View full review »it_user844485
President at a tech vendor with 1-10 employees
It provides a comprehensive security for databases, both on-prem and on the cloud.
Among the advanced features we use automatic backups, DR. We'd like to implement more predictive, using Watson.
View full review »it_user842865
Database Administrator at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
It makes the auditors happy.
It does not require our involvement to run it. It runs in the background and the people that do the reporting do so. The reports go to the directors who are in charge of the various data areas. It's pretty clean. Clearly there is some setup, but after you get it set up it just goes.
I have no idea what the advanced features are, so we're probably not using them.
View full review »it_user841971
Guardium Engineer
It does the monitoring of access very well, although we currently don't use any of the advanced features.
View full review »LW
Lawrence Wells
IT Security Manager at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
- Our ability to see when users are accessing sensitive data.
- The front-end works very well.
- Gathering the data works very well.
We are using quite a few of the advanced features. Some of those include some scripting for integration with our other security tools in the environment along with data collection, and the ability to use large data formats for monitoring and information.
Databasefec0
Database Administrator at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
- Its band monitoring. We just started to use it.
- The mobility assessment
it_user841947
Systems DBA at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Probably the most valuable feature for me, in my role as systems DBA, is the expediting of internal and external audits.
View full review »AppMainfaf77
App Mainframe And Storage at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
I understand that it's one of the first to encrypt DB2 databases.
I'm not able to answer whether we're using any of the advanced features.
View full review »it_user841929
IT Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
It's simple to use and managing the solution. It's very, very good for security and tracking users and databases in the organization.
View full review »reviewer841896
Information Security Analyst Consultant at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Some of its reporting capabilities. Guardium does a great job of capturing data and having the ability of trying to pull it out and make sense of it. Using it for business applications is its biggest capability.
We use many of the advanced features. We are one of the more advanced Guardium clients, thus we use features, such as custom tables and the ability to import custom data. We have used some of the data discovery pieces before, along with the classification builder. Therefore, we are pretty strong power users in the product.
We have been looking into Guardium Big Data Intelligence and seeing if it makes sense for our organization.
it_user840891
Systems Programmer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Satisfies audit requests, to give us an idea if anybody is accessing our privileged user IDs without our knowledge.
We don't use any of the advanced features.
Regarding other features we would like to implement, I don't deal with the actual setup of the product. We have a specialist for Guardium to do that for us. We tell him our requirements and he builds the policies. So far it's very limited on our side, but I imagine on the open systems, side there would be a lot more complex policies.
View full review »it_user840906
Senior information security analyst at PFG
The most valuable is the GUI, the interface. It also interfaces well with REST API, if you want to automate some of the commands.
Inside the GUI they've really done a lot, especially from version 9 to version 10, in how they lay it out and how user-friendly it is. I've been using it for a few years, but for someone newer it's now a lot easier to use and not as daunting.
In terms of the advanced features, we do a lot of different regulations - some of the advanced ones, like GDPR, that's a big regulation in the EU. We do a lot of classifications and a lot more rules in our policy base around those regulations, that are advanced.
Looking to the near future, we're looking at some of the cloud features, especially some of the classification they're putting in the cloud, so it's not so much appliance-focused. It will help automate some of that process and make it run a lot more smoothly, because it won't be on Linux appliances in our environment.
Guardium has save us a lot of time, especially with the things it can automate. It has especially saved the DBA's time. We have a lot of other IBM products, so going with this one definitely gives us value, rather than going with another vendor. Senior management is absolutely aware that Guardium has been saving us time and money.
View full review »it_user631725
Application Architect at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I'm not aware of our using any of the existing advanced features. I was only in on the initial implementation, so if they have added new things since then, I'm not aware of it.
View full review »DC
Darren Chaker
Operator at Halliburton
IBM Guardium provides a unified key management system to help simplify encryption key management. In a large organization, this is a critical feature and IBM went above and beyond while developing the software.
View full review »it_user538203
Solution Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
* Quick search
* Ability to define reports based on SQL query, especially when you have complex report criteria.
* Stream audit data to 2 collectors simultaneously.
* GIM passive install. You can connect GIM from Colletor or CM when GIM is running in listening mode.
View full review »it_user545376
Senior System Administrator IBM Certified Specialist Infosphere Guardium at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Database activity monitoring (DAM)
View full review »it_user542787
Senior Middleware Engineer at a tech company with 501-1,000 employees
Database logging and audit functions are the most valuable features. In some fields like banking, it's very important to be aware of the actions of database users, and ensure that those without the permission to access information do not access it.
View full review »it_user618123
Senior IT Consultant, Pre-Sales Manager, Project Leader at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
- Database Activity Monitoring: Fulfills the international standard security requirements, such as PCI DSS
- It is very transparent on all of the query access controls of the monitored databases
it_user581697
Database Security Specialist at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
- Monitors database activities of end users who are connected to databases (DBAs and developers)
- Classifies critical objects on the databases
- Discovers databases on your network
- Finds vulnerabilities of your databases
- Blocks critical activities
it_user385986
Pre Sales Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
All the features are useful for the customer and they have many use cases, especially for DB protection.
They have a module called Redaction. For query rewriting, it can protect some data stored in the table by the DB admin to return the masked data, in case he tries to view our customer personal information such as phone numbers,names, account number etc.
In some cases it blocked the bad user from deleting or copying data , For example, in use cases to block creation of the users on the DB without filing forum/ following the company policy.
View full review »it_user588594
Security Software Presales Specialist
Heterogeneous support for data activity monitoring. I have not been able to find any other product that can monitor as many platforms from one application. Guardium can monitor Windows servers, Linux, Unix, mainframe, and big data environments from one policy. Guardium captures data access activity across networks and local connections.
View full review »it_user589479
Security Consultant at a energy/utilities company
It captures all data requests regardless of the source and consolidates them for analysis.
View full review »it_user593442
Technical Specialist/Consultant Ibm at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The main features are database activity monitoring and firewall feature blocking.
View full review »it_user551505
Senior Advisory Consultant - Cyber Security Practice at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
It’s available as a hardware appliance as well as software. This provides flexibility as to how you want to deploy the tool.
It can automatically locate DBs, as well as discover and classify sensitive data.
Data Activity Monitor covers what appears to be every DB imaginable, even data warehouses and file shares.
It allows administrators to enforce trigger alerts built around predefined policies, so that any access to sensitive data can be tracked and blocked if necessary.
View full review »it_user549432
Senior IT Consultant at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
The Data Activity Monitor is the most valuable feature of this product.
It has the capability to capture database queries and is using policies to feed SIEM tools for deeper correlation and for analysis of cyber security concerns on monitored databases.
View full review »it_user541269
BI Consultant /Data Security at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
- Detailed and customizable reports with real-time alerts for the full vision of database/files activity.
- Versatile rules for access control in real-time including blocking, masking, etc.: These rules are really helpful to fulfill enterprise security specifications. With them, you could divide roles, creating safe access zones; manage credentials; and access rules. The rules are easy to develop and customize.
FT
Farhan Tariq
Information Security Analyst at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
The database activity monitoring and firewall features of Guardium address our database security requirements. The combination of policies, alerts, baselines, reports, and query rewrite functions are easy to use and provide enough room for customization.
View full review »it_user560268
Information Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
For us, the most valuable features are the auditing capabilities and the Guardium inspection engine. The GIM (Guardium Installation Manager) makes it easy to manage the S-TAP agent. You can enable/disable, install and upgrade remotely with no need for the system administrator.
View full review »VN
Velly Nusmir
Senior Manager at PT Permata Anugerah Abadi
The platform provides data protection from internal and external threats. It has good features for reporting and integration with other products.
View full review »reviewer1830612
Head, Cybersecurity at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The most valuable features are the modules, discovery classification, and vulnerability assessment. The reporting side is also very, very good, especially its flexibility which allows you to tailor the reports to whatever information you want. It also has the advantage of architectural data collection from the database.
View full review »reviewer933939
Security Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
The most valuable features of this product are activity monitoring on the database servers, discovery capabilities, and vulnerability scanning.
View full review »reviewer1681527
Security Specialist at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The solution supports a lot of databases.
View full review »Buyer's Guide
IBM Security Guardium Data Protection
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about IBM Security Guardium Data Protection. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
861,481 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free IBM Security Guardium Data Protection Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
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Download our free IBM Security Guardium Data Protection Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
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