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Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs Symantec Data Center Security comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 14, 2024

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

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation
Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (9th), Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) (4th), Microsegmentation Software (2nd)
Symantec Data Center Security
Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security
11th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Cloud and Data Center Security category, the mindshare of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is 24.7%, up from 21.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Data Center Security is 1.5%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud and Data Center Security
 

Featured Reviews

Matthias Kropf - PeerSpot reviewer
The tool's most valuable feature is visibility but needs improvement in Kubernetes
We use the product in the production environment of server infrastructure.  The tool's most valuable feature is its visibility.  Kubernetes is not installed in the way we need it.  I have been using the product since October.  We faced some minor issues, but overall, the product is stable. I…
Atul-Vats - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers a complete system lockdown feature and the ability to restrict users but has a complex policy structure
The negative aspect of that particular product is the fact it has a very, very, very complex policy structure. A user or administrator making the policy in the DCS should have a very thorough knowledge of the operating system or policy making. You have to be very specific about the data structure. If you want to secure a Linux server, an administrator should be very confident about how the directory structure of Linux, how Linux works, and where it puts the important logs. You have to be very cautious about the complete path, and you have to write it over there in the policy part. If you are not very specific, there will be a lot of noise in the system. You're going to receive thousands of events that are false positives. The fine-tuning of the policy is a very complex thing in the DCS itself. Another negative aspect that I have observed is if the product gets installed on the kernel level of any non-Windows server, it has some issues, comparability issues. Sometimes the product doesn't work properly, so it shuts down the machine and crashes the system. There are many cases in which I've observed the DCS crashing the system.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The label-based segmentation is the most valuable feature."
"Guardicore Centra offers the best coverage specifically in backward compatibility with legacy operating systems."
"The solution is very scalable, especially when connected to the cloud resources."
"The interface and dashboard are amazing."
"Guardicore makes its own rule set automatically, so we can work fast when creating a rule set."
"I found the solution to be stable."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the maps and ring fencing that help monitor events."
"We like the centralized management of the firewalls. Until we installed Guardicore Centra, we managed all our firewalls individually, so making changes was complicated, difficult, and time-consuming."
"The tool will then detect any anomalies, such as an intruder who has breached the network, which can trigger the system lockdown feature if it's enabled and meets the defined threshold."
"The real strength lies in its straightforward approach, offering just two key policies: prevention and detection."
"Good file integrity monitoring features."
"The ability to finely control permissions and restrictions on servers or assets through a customizable rule set is a key strength."
"The most valuable feature is the endpoint protection system."
"We use the product to prevent unauthorized access to data, systems, and servers. It provides essential features for data center security."
"The granularity of applying the policies is valuable."
"The most valuable feature is the centralized console, which can handle different products that we have."
 

Cons

"They can maybe improve their customer service just because they are kind of a small organization, and customer service isn't as big as others such as VMware."
"Needs more customization of honeypots and a vaster catalog of systems able to be mimicked."
"I would rate the stability a six out of ten, where one is low and ten is high stability."
"Clients would like to see that the security policies of GuardiCore can continue to be comparable to all the major firewall players out there."
"The long-term management of the security policies could be improved with some kind of automation platform, something like Chef or Puppet or Ansible, to help you manage the policies after day-one... to then manage the policies and changes to those policies, going forward, through some type of automation process is not turning out to be really easy."
"Supports become difficult when it's for a big organization. For a small organization, medium organization, it still makes sense, however, for a big organization, it makes life difficult."
"The product needs a few features like enhanced user policies and payload-level inspection to improve the offering."
"The dashboard needs improvement. It should be more flexible so that I can easily see what I want or need to see."
"The support is very bad. They're not fast at all. Trend Micro's support is much better."
"Adding more compatibility with common products like Microsoft would be a plus."
"They need to develop a more flexible product that can be scaled such that it fits well into a small business or a bigger, enterprise-level solution."
"A user or administrator making the policy in the DCS should have a very thorough knowledge of the operating system or policy making. You have to be very specific about the data structure."
"This solution clashes with Microsoft defender, which results in performance degradation on the machine."
"It would be advantageous if Symantec or Broadcom, given the rebranding, could simplify the process, enabling users to leverage the antivirus functionality more easily."
"Could have better reporting capabilities and better support."
"The product blocks certain processes, even after allowlisting them."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Guardicore Centra provides better value for money than NSX, was the other solution that we looked at, which was too expensive for what it does."
"The price is the same as other products in the market. There's no price argument to choose one or the other product, it will cost the customer approximately the same."
"Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is expensive."
"GuardiCore has made some new changes to the license now. We've seen monthly and annual licenses based on a subscription. We have a few clients that pay anywhere from $25,000 a year."
"The solution is reasonably priced and I would rate it a six out of ten. The tool's licensing costs are yearly."
"Compared to the pricing we were seeing from both Illumio and Edgewise, Guardicore was very competitive."
"The pricing is too high."
"This is not a cheap solution but you have to consider the bigger picture, which is what it is giving you."
"Compared to some other solutions, such as CrowdStrike, Symantec is more expensive."
"It is notably more expensive when compared to other solutions."
"The product is a bit costly."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Guardicore Centra?
I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive. I know other micro-segmentation tools like Cisco or Illumio, and so I think they are in the middle.
What do you like most about Guardicore Infection Monkey?
Initially, I liked the telemetry part. But later, we used the microsegmentation features that we were able to deploy and found that they really stood out from other vendors. It allows us to see mi...
What needs improvement with Guardicore Infection Monkey?
When we have more than one interface, we can only have one policy for both interfaces. Normally, you have assets with a production interface and a server interface that are only for management. But...
What do you like most about Symantec Data Center Security?
The granularity of applying the policies is valuable.
What needs improvement with Symantec Data Center Security?
Agent management is a challenging task. We cannot do it from the console. We will have to use other tools.
What is your primary use case for Symantec Data Center Security?
One key use case for data center security is protecting files within the data center. This is especially important for Linux systems, where locking down specific files is essential to prevent unaut...
 

Also Known As

Guardicore Centra, GuardiCore
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Santander, Frontier Airlines, OpenLink, Intermountain Healthcare, Cellcom, BancoBASE
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Symantec Data Center Security and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.