Fortra's Digital Guardian Reviews

I work with Fortra's Digital Guardian as a consultant. As of now, I am using Fortra's Digital Guardian for Endpoint DLP and Network DLP. Endpoint DLP stands out because it can detect activity without implementing any rules. Unlike other DLP solutions where you need to configure rules and policies, Fortra's Digital Guardian can detect any user activity after installation and commissioning without the need for policy implementation.

Fortra's Digital Guardian can detect Windows most effectively, but it can also detect other operating systems such as Linux and Mac, addressing the cross-platform protection issue.

Endpoint DLP can detect activity without implementing any rules. Unlike other DLP solutions where you need to configure rules and policies, Fortra's Digital Guardian can detect any user activity after installation and commissioning without the need for policy implementation; it just works by system default.

Real-time data visibility capability of Fortra's Digital Guardian helps me to manage data security effectively. It is effective at detecting insider threats, but its effectiveness mostly depends on how Active Directory is configured in the environment, as the system can synchronize with the corporate network's Active Directory.

I find it effective, especially if the user, when buying NDLP, also purchases Arc; Arc is most effective in reporting compared to the system itself for forensic and customized reports. Fortra's Digital Guardian can detect Windows most effectively, but it can also detect other operating systems such as Linux and Mac, addressing the cross-platform protection issue.

Several areas need improvement. System reporting and default system reporting are not totally usable and require customization to be practical. I find Fortra's Digital Guardian to be somewhat expensive, not highly or totally expensive, but somewhat expensive nonetheless.

I see some limitations regarding scalability in Fortra's Digital Guardian; every application has its own limitations, and while there are limits, we attempt to work around them, sometimes needing to collaborate with Fortra's Digital Guardian engineers to find solutions. Latency issues with Fortra's Digital Guardian depend on the configuration in terms of network, so while it can be acceptable, it really depends on how well it is set up.

I have been using Fortra's Digital Guardian since 2016 until now, and I worked there full-time for seven years, but now it is part-time.

I see some limitations regarding scalability in Fortra's Digital Guardian; every application has its own limitations, and while there are limits, we attempt to work around them, sometimes needing to collaborate with Fortra's Digital Guardian engineers to find solutions.

Technical support from Fortra can vary; sometimes I encounter great engineers with high experience who can resolve issues quickly, but other times I face less experienced engineers which can cause delays in issue resolution.

I would rate technical support at eight points overall.

I have only used Fortra's Digital Guardian, and I have tried simulations with other products. Forcepoint is also good; however, what I mostly use is Fortra's Digital Guardian EDLP and NDLP.

Installation of Fortra's Digital Guardian is straightforward.

I see some return on investment with Fortra's Digital Guardian since the license is based on the endpoints, which is where you can save.

Forcepoint is also good; however, what I mostly use is Fortra's Digital Guardian EDLP and NDLP. While I find Forcepoint acceptable, I cannot entirely compare it with Fortra's Digital Guardian as the reporting is a notable drawback, making it a headache when creating reports.

Real-time data visibility capability of Fortra's Digital Guardian helps me to manage data security effectively, which is a good point compared to other DLP solutions. For the specific compliance needs that Fortra's Digital Guardian addresses for my company, it depends on the environment; from my experience, compliance is acceptable since every client usually has similar compliance needs that the system can integrate with, although it has limitations as well. I give Fortra's Digital Guardian a rating of nine points since it deserves that recognition.

Fortra's Digital Guardian serves as our main DLP tool. We utilize its policy to either block or allow users depending on their use cases.

For example, we configure policies to block users from copying files to external sources or external sites or other non-Accenture authorized storages, including cloud storages or any unauthorized file movement. Policies are in place to block those activities. For some people who have certain exemptions depending on their project or client needs or approved use cases, we also implement exemption policies.

One of the best features that we have utilized over the years is the tagging or file tagging that Fortra's Digital Guardian offers. With this file tagging, everything that needs to be controlled or monitored is blocked for any file transfer because once the file is tagged by Fortra's Digital Guardian, that tag remains wherever the file is placed. We are able to monitor where that file is going.

We have been able to widen our scope when it comes to file monitoring compared to our previous DLP tool. Our previous tool did not offer the same technicalities. We are able to block more use cases or file transfer scenarios with Fortra's Digital Guardian than we could with our previous tool. We are able to widen our scope when it comes to monitoring those files or flagging those files.

The tool needs to be more optimized in terms of CPU usage. Most users experience a little bit of slowness, especially during upgrades. Others have experienced incompatibility issues that result in either slowness or access issues.

Fortra's Digital Guardian does have some mishaps and imperfections, but it has been really helpful for us as a DLP tool. It gives its purpose and actually does its job, but it still could be better.

I have been using Fortra's Digital Guardian for about two and a half years.

Fortra's Digital Guardian is stable.

Regarding scalability, we have not encountered many issues when we started to roll out Fortra's Digital Guardian to all of our users. When it comes to licensing on every server, we are able to smoothly request additional licenses for every server.

Customer support is great. We are able to communicate openly with the customer support team, and their support pages are readily available.

For others looking into using Fortra's Digital Guardian, I would suggest learning the steps for monitoring and maintaining the server, especially policy configuration, since it is quite tricky and includes a lot of processes. I would recommend learning first before attempting anything at a production level.

Previously, we used Symantec. However, we had to switch because of the scope for the DLP tool. Symantec does not have policy tagging, which is why we switched to Fortra's Digital Guardian.

The initial setup does not require a lot of manual work. We use templates that are already in place in our dev environments, and then we tweak those templates to how we need or want it to behave.

Regarding return on investment, I cannot provide information about money saved or time saved or whether fewer employees were needed. As a general impression, I can say that Fortra's Digital Guardian is a worthwhile investment when it comes to DLP tools. It is reliable, it has a broad scope, and the vendor is easy to reach out to and makes it easy to request assistance.

Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing, I am not aware of the actual cost since only the leadership discusses that. Regarding licensing, I believe we are able to get as much licensing as needed, but I am not certain about the cost.

If I am not mistaken, the management team has other options in line aside from Fortra's Digital Guardian. However, Fortra's Digital Guardian was chosen because of the policy tagging use case or capability.

From my experience, we have not experienced any inaccuracies.

Fortra's Digital Guardian does have some mishaps and imperfections, but it has been really helpful for us as a DLP tool. It gives its purpose and actually does its job, but it still could be better.

Regarding security, the console and tool itself are secure. Most aspects of the console or the tool are not something that we can access unless we need to or unless we are approved for access. In terms of access, I can say it is secure.

My current company is the only customer, and they do not have any existing relationship or partnership.

I have not mentioned any other information. I would rate this product an eight out of ten.

We have a wider range of use cases for Digital Guardian, it detects the movement and classification of files within the endpoint server. We can easily check or gather evidence for what is really being transferred, sets of data, and more. The sol There are a lot of cases that Digital Guardian provides compared to Netskope DLP.

When it comes to Digital Guardian, it has a wide range of policies and use cases that you can leverage. It's easy to detect sensitive information, globally known and personally identifiable information. You can customize policies to your own requirements.

I really like the wide range of policies, easy detection of sensitive info, and customization of policies.

Moreover, the solution has user analytics that detects a wide range of data channels such as external drives, mail, internal and external storage, and cloud storage.

In my opinion, there's a need for an extensive skill set or knowledge of creating policies. There's room for improvement to make it more user-friendly in creating custom rules and policies.

In future releases, I would like to see a quick glance at detected data without downloading the actual file for both Windows and MacOS.

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. It's pretty stable, and we haven't experienced downtime or major issues with the solution.

I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten since it's scalable in terms of adding more features and policies. It's easily manageable with this solution.

We have around 4,000 end users using this solution. We have recently increased the usage. Before, we had less than 3,000 licenses. 

The support is an expert in guiding you through creating policies. Since it's somewhat hard to create on your own, you have a customer success manager who can help you with the solution. So, the support is pretty much awesome.

Positive

We compared with other DLP solutions like Symantec, comparing them with their evaluation.

We chose this solution because of the different features of Digital Guardian compared to Symantec DLP. We chose Digital Guardian because it offers more capabilities.

We have the SaaS or MSSP type of services with Digital Guardian. So, I would rate my experience with the initial setup a nine out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy to set up. It's more on plug-and-play. Just install the agents for your machines, and it'll detect the data for you.

The deployment probably took us a month or more to ensure the modules were running, and the right policies were in place—roughly around more than a month to detect the solution.

Fortra will ask you about the use cases, what important data you want to monitor, and the policies you want to enable. They will ask how many endpoints we are looking at and the specific region for the management console. They also ask if you want Digital Guardian to monitor the solution for you, as we have a managed service offering.

Four people are needed for implementation: an IT admin, a security architect, an enterprise security team, and a project manager—additionally, the implementation team of Fortra.

No maintenance is required.  Digital Guardian handles the back end, and any requests or additions can be made by simply emailing them or filing a ticket. There is no maintenance required from the end user perspective. 

We have accurate detection on data protection and more visibility on different data channels compared to other DLP solutions. So, basically, more on the principle, there is ROI.  

So, we have seen an 80% to 90% return on investment. Better time to operate, quicker response to the detection. So, it's pretty much good.

The pricing is not cheap, but there's value in what you purchase, around eight out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive. 

Since it's not a cheap solution, you can do more with security, or we have bigger use cases. If you have the money, I recommend going with Digital Guardian.

The price can be a smaller businesses. You will pay based on the modules you want to have. So, it's pretty much scalable.

Just know your use cases before contacting or purchasing it. Make sure that you don't purchase more than what you need. When implementing Digital Guardian DLP, you need to know what you are protecting.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

I have been handling the clients who use the product. My current company is the reseller connected with the tool from the time it was known as Digital Guardian, and then recently after it was changed to Fortra's Digital Guardian. It has been almost five years working with the tool.

The tool's use cases depend on the client's needs and whether it can apply the DLP or nDLP features in a company's environment. My company needs to ask the clients what things they need in terms of eDLP so that we can compensate and finalize a solution to apply to the environment. So far, the tool has been working fine, but sometimes we are facing struggles. Support from Fortra's Digital Guardian does offer help to our company.

The trouble with the tool is its ability to integrate with a third-party application. For example, integrating an SIEM with the firewalls that the client currently uses can be difficult. The main thing is from Fortra's Digital Guardian perspective itself, which is to apply it directly to the client's environment. In my experience, every client has their own infrastructure that needs to be compensated so that the tool can work according to the client's infrastructure.

The improvements required in the product depend on the developers because, from time to time, vulnerabilities happen in Microsoft or other operating systems, which are encountered directly by the users. Once Fortra's engineers know about the vulnerabilities impacting the operating systems, they will develop or rectify the bugs or areas that are causing an issue in the tool. We can send the logs to the application developer, who can then rectify the issues in the tool.

I have been using Fortra's Digital Guardian since 2018. My company is in partnership with Fortra's Digital Guardian.

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

My company's clients consist of small, medium, and enterprise businesses.

The solution's technical support can be frustrating for a user. I rate the technical support a seven to eight out of ten.

Neutral

As long as you know the flow and how the setup phase works, the process can be totally straightforward. If you encounter the tool for the first time, you may need to understand where the configuration has to be done. My experience with the tool was one year, and after that, I became familiar with the product and how to apply its features, making it a bit easy for me to use.

The solution is deployed on the cloud and on-premises models.

I cannot discuss the product's financial benefits because that is the responsibility of another team. From an operational perspective, the tool is okay for me as long as it fulfills my clients' needs.

As per my experience with both of my clients, I would say that the price is a bit high, but it didn't matter once they noticed the thing they wanted for their application. As long as your needs are fulfilled, even if the price is high, you will buy the tool.

The features of Fortra's Digital Guardian that have been the most impactful in protecting sensitive information revolve around the areas of eDLP and nDLP since they can monitor and detect without deploying any policy. Unlike the other DLP tools, where you need to deploy the policy before it can be detected, with eDLP, once it is installed accordingly and includes the agents, Fortra's Digital Guardian eDLP can monitor whatever activities are done by users. When it comes to nDLP, the discovery part is good. Fortra's engineers create a lot of system default policies. Once you install it in your system, the default policy can be customized according to the client's needs. The system default policy is something you can customize and can be made workable on the client side.

I don't have experience integrating AI with the tool.

I recommend the tool to others, especially as long as I notice that what one needs is applicable to Fortra's Digital Guardian application. I have already recommended the tool four times to others.

I rate the tool a ten out of ten.