ACF2 vs IBM Security Guardium Data Protection comparison

Broadcom and IBM are both solutions in the Database Security category. Broadcom is ranked #14, while IBM is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. Broadcom holds a 1.4% mindshare in DS, compared to IBM’s 29.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Broadcom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of IBM users who would recommend it.

ACF2

Read 6 ACF2 reviews

495 Views
139 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Security Guardium Data ...

Read 79 IBM Security Guardium Data Protection reviews

4,782 Views
3,969 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

ACF2

IBM Security Guardium Data ...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection and ACF2 are competitors in data security. IBM Security Guardium Data Protection has a slight advantage due to its advanced analytical tools and streamlined deployment.

Features: IBM Security Guardium Data Protection offers robust data encryption, real-time monitoring, and automated compliance capabilities. It also provides comprehensive security through database activity monitoring and firewall features, making it adaptable to various environments. ACF2 focuses on strong access control, efficient multi-factor authentication, and seamless mainframe integration, appealing to those prioritizing system integration.

Room for Improvement: For IBM Security Guardium Data Protection, areas of improvement include enhancing user interface intuitiveness, expanding cloud compatibility, and reducing complexity in advanced feature deployment. ACF2 could benefit from improving the user experience for non-mainframe experts, expanding feature richness beyond integration, and enhancing its analytical tools to compete directly with IBM's offerings.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both products offer effective deployment models, but IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is notably more streamlined, reducing implementation time. IBM's customer support is perceived as more accessible and responsive, whereas ACF2 may require specialized mainframe knowledge for support.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Security Guardium Data Protection has a higher initial setup cost but delivers significant long-term ROI through its comprehensive protection features. ACF2 presents competitive pricing but achieves a slightly lower ROI due to its focus on integration over feature richness. IBM offers better financial value concerning data protection expenditure.

To learn more, read our detailed ACF2 vs. IBM Security Guardium Data Protection Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ACF2 vs. IBM Security Guardium Data Protection

September 2025

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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

ACF2

Ranking in Database Security

14th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Mainframe Security (6th)

IBM Security Guardium Data ...

Ranking in Database Security

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Database Security category, the mindshare of ACF2 is 1.4%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is 29.3%, down from 33.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database Security Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Security Guardium Data Protection	29.3%
ACF2	1.4%
Other	69.3%

Database Security

Featured Reviews

reviewer1077621

IT Examiner at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

A reliable, scalable product for security and auditing of our mainframe environment

It is a good product. It has been used for years. As long as it is configured correctly, it is a very stable product. It depends on how an institution or a company configures it. It depends on an institution's risk appetite. You need to make sure it is configured as per the concept of least privilege, and the logging features, detection and control mechanism, and other things like that are enabled. If you configure it to give access to the public, then there could be compromises. You should also have someone who independently checks it to make sure that it is configured keeping security in mind. If it has been configured for a while, when there are enhancements to the product or when you enhance it, you need to make sure that security is also looked at, and it is configured according to an institution's security policies. I would rate it a nine out of 10.

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Ahmer Faisel Khan

Director | CTO at COMMTEL

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Logging and monitoring are most valuable. It is for the mainframe environment, and it is at the forefront for security and resilience."

"The NOACCESS by default is another very good feature. Also, access rules are straightforward, and easy to understand."

"Excellent real-time reporting that saves time and resources."

"I love their support. The support is great. They are number one."

"We use this tool to quickly assign privileges to different users as soon as they come in."

"Database logging and audit functions are the most valuable features."

"The purpose of EBM Guardium is to monitor database activity and who is accessing it. This is the most valuable feature."

"It has been very difficult to analyze all the network traffic with something else. Guardium provides that feature, it's heuristic. So we have rule-based algorithms in place to take care of that."

"The reporting side is also very, very good, especially its flexibility which allows you to tailor the reports to whatever information you want."

"One of the most valuable features is the accelerator. It has a predefined report for PCI SOX compliance and other compliances."

"We appreciate its ease of implementation and the local support available for the product."

"It can help with PCI compliance. It includes features like data masking, especially during queries, which supports compliance efforts."

"Provides a unified key management system to help simplify encryption key management."

More IBM Security Guardium Data Protection pros

Cons

"They can work on its ability to work in a distributed environment. It's a mainframe product. As many companies move to the cloud, depending on what cloud models they choose, such as a public, hybrid, or private cloud, it should be deployable. I am not sure if it can be deployed on those platforms. It has been there since the '50s or '60s, and it's still scalable. It has survived all these years, and it's scalable to many platforms, but I don't know about the cloud."

"Reporting can sometimes include false positives."

"I would like my team and me to be able to use simple browsers, like Chrome, to be able to access mainframe data and provision users using the browser."

"It needs longer rules. The max rule is 32K."

"The analysis part of this product could be improved. It's a very comprehensive product, so the features it has complement customer requirements. But I would like to see more emphasis on analytics, and it would be great if they added machine learning. They already have analysis insights, but a comprehensive analytical feature that's already incorporated into the solution would be very helpful."

"The manuals should be clearer. There needs to be an online course or tutorial for faster management training."

"An area for improvement would be the user interface - currently, it takes around two to three months to become comfortable using it."

"The installation should be a bit easier."

"Needs easier integration with custom applications."

"We deal with updates manually on Sundays and sometimes face bugs with the newer versions."

"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."

"I would like to see streamlining of some of the agent features, some of the patches; make it a little bit more user-friendly on the documentation."

More IBM Security Guardium Data Protection cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"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."

"For IBM Guardium, licensing is very simple and straightforward. There are no issues I can speak of."

"The product's pricing is reasonable and affordable. It is in the moderate range."

"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."

"Reasonable cost but could be lower."

"Guardium is most suitable for large scale enterprises because the pricing model is better if you are implementing a large number of databases."

"IBM solutions have fair price strategy, and operates on a yearly basis. If it's a SaaS solution, then you can opt for yearly basis."

"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."

More IBM Security Guardium Data Protection pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

27%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	28
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	45

Questions from the Community

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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...

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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.

See all answers

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 activities.

See all answers

Comparisons

Top Secret vs ACF2

Compared 37% of the time

IBM Resource Access Control Facility vs ACF2

Compared 31% of the time

IBM Security zSecure vs ACF2

Compared 12% of the time

More ACF2 Competitors

Imperva Data Security Fabric vs IBM Security Guardium Data Protection

Compared 52% of the time

Oracle Audit Vault vs IBM Security Guardium Data Protection

Compared 19% of the time

DataSunrise Database Security vs IBM Security Guardium Data Protection

Compared 5% of the time

IBM InfoSphere Optim Data Privacy vs IBM Security Guardium Data Protection

Compared 3% of the time

Oracle Advanced Security vs IBM Security Guardium Data Protection

Compared 2% of the time

More IBM Security Guardium Data Protection Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Mainframe Security

September 2025

Download ACF2 product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection

September 2025

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection report

Download IBM Security Guardium Data Protection product report

Also Known As

CA ACF2

InfoSphere Guardium, Guardium, IBM Guardium

Overview

CA ACF2™ for z/OS provides innovative, comprehensive security for your business transaction environments—including Linux, UNIX and z/OS on System z—helping you realize the reliability, scalability and cost-effectiveness of the mainframe. CA ACF2 provides an Advanced Authentication Mainframe feature, system entry validation, resource control, auditability, accountability, and administrative control. In conjunction with distributed security solutions from CA Technologies, CA ACF2 provides mobile-to-mainframe enterprise class security and compliance management.

ACF2 Features

ACF2 offers some of the following features:

Authentication: ACF2 is used for authenticating users and granting them access to profiles and various resources on the mainframe.
Access Control: The solution provides resource control, allowing administrators to control who can access specific mainframe resources.
Logging and Monitoring: Organizations can easily track and monitor activities on the mainframe. This feature enables the creation of audit trails for follow-up and helps with security analysis.
Metrics and Reporting: ACF2 allows the configuration of tools to produce different types of metrics and reports. These can then be used by senior management for making informed security decisions.
Comprehensive Security: The solution provides comprehensive security for mainframe environments, ensuring the protection of valuable data assets. It offers advanced authentication, system entry validation, and administrative control.
Streamlined Administration: It simplifies the administration of mainframe security by providing streamlined management capabilities. ACF2 also enables administrators to monitor and adjust security policies and accommodate various organizational structures.
Scalability: ACF2 offers reliable and scalable security, allowing businesses to expand their mainframe environments while maintaining a high level of protection.
Compliance Management: Organizations can meet compliance requirements by providing auditability, accountability, and comprehensive security controls.
Integration: ACF2 can integrate with distributed security solutions from CA Technologies, providing enterprise-class security and compliance management for mobile-to-mainframe environments.
Flexibility: ACF2 allows flexibility in adapting security policies to accommodate different organizational structures and requirements.

ACF2 Benefits

Some of the benefits that ACF2 provides are:

Enhanced security and resilience
Streamlined administration
Reliable and scalable security
Comprehensive audit capabilities
Cost-effectiveness
Integration with other security solutions
Simplified identity and access management
Compliance management
Efficient monitoring and reporting

Reviews from Real Users

According to an IT Examiner at a financial services firm with 10,000+ employees, "ACF2 is extremely beneficial for the mainframe environment, and it is at the forefront for security and resilience."

Broadcom

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection automatically discovers and classifies sensitive data from across the enterprise, providing real-time data activity monitoring and advanced user behavior analytics to help discover unusual activity around sensitive data.

Deploy the solution to help discover regulated data in your data stores and use pre-built templates for regulations such as PCI, SOX, HIPAA, CCPA and many more, to streamline and automate compliance workflows.

IBM

Sample Customers

Sky, Rogers Communications

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

ACF2 vs. IBM Security Guardium Data Protection

September 2025

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