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Cleanup vs IBM Security Guardium Data Protection 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cleanup
Ranking in Database Security
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Mainframe Security (11th)
IBM Security Guardium Data ...
Ranking in Database Security
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Database Security category, the mindshare of Cleanup is 1.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is 28.0%, down from 32.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Security Guardium Data Protection28.0%
Cleanup1.4%
Other70.6%
Database Security
 

Featured Reviews

it_user350628 - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
It looks forward in the database, so if it’s not showing any activity, you can get rid of that profile. But, if I give someone access to it, I can’t control the scope of what they can see.
It presents problems. The problem is, if I give someone access to it, I can’t control the scope of what they can see. They can see everything. I want to make the information available and more integrated with other security components, and I want it to be more reliable. It also needs acknowledgement that clean-up data can come from temporary cloned environments that somehow need to be incorporated into enterprise view of usage.
DP
Chief Executive Officer at Kipustec
Ensures data security and compliance with reliable alerts and protections
The manuals should be clearer. There needs to be an online course or tutorial for faster management training. The maintenance was slightly complicated. I had to read the manuals carefully and even failed the Guardium certification exam due to insufficient information or time. Improving the tool learning process would be beneficial.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support is good, and they're great once they agree there’s a problem."
"Guardium lets you centrally manage aggregators and collectors."
"Setting up Guardium was easy and straightforward."
"I think IMB's technical support is good."
"It provides a comprehensive security for databases, both on-prem and on the cloud. Among the advanced features we use automatic backups, DR."
"Being an IBM product it really offers security integration capabilities and robust features. Over the years, it has satisfactory met the requirements of our customers which makes it a very reliable and versatile solution."
"We have integrated IBM Guardium​ with IBM Watson Curator. They access Curator to identify and correlate other actions the user is doing to determine if this is a legitimate action or not."
"The Data Activity Monitor is the most valuable feature of this product."
"It supports our audit compliance."
 

Cons

"Use it as an indication of data, not as gospel. Don’t take action based solely on it."
"It was difficult implementing it, configuring it, getting it up and running and in production. However, since then, I believe it has stabilized."
"​Overall testing and quality need improvement. It is fairly buggy at times, so it feels like it could use additional staff on the product, testing and trying it out."
"Real-time masking is a bit simple and doesn't allow you to create complex masking rules."
"The main issue I have with IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is the support. It's not good."
"An area for improvement would be the user interface - currently, it takes around two to three months to become comfortable using it."
"I am struggling getting through to social."
"The initial setup was complex."
"An improvement would be to make the pricing relative in terms of regions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"​If you are researching this type of solution, work with IBM."
"It is a very costly product."
"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."
"Guardium has not saved us time or money."
"My company purchased IBM Guardium Data Protection in a package, so I'm unable to give its exact licensing cost, but for the package of three IBM solutions, it wasn't very expensive. I'd rate the pricing for all three solutions three out of five. When my team deployed IBM Guardium Data Protection, all features were included."
"The biggest challenge is the cost associated with the product, and the cost of maintaining. Everything is not translated directly to the benefits we see. There are benefits, yes, but if I were writing the check, would I buy Guardium? No."
"For IBM Guardium, licensing is very simple and straightforward. There are no issues I can speak of."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
24%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise44
 

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...
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.
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.
 

Also Known As

CA Cleanup
InfoSphere Guardium, Guardium, IBM Guardium
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Standard Bank of South Africa
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM, Imperva, Oracle and others in Database Security. Updated: February 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.