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IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment vs Orca Security comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 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

Qualys TotalCloud
Sponsored
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Container Security (11th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (8th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (8th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (1st), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (6th)
IBM Guardium Vulnerability ...
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
53rd
Average Rating
6.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Orca Security
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
10th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Container Security (8th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (6th), API Security (3rd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (6th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (5th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (7th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (2nd), AI Security (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 1.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Orca Security is 2.2%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Orca Security2.2%
Qualys TotalCloud1.0%
IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment0.7%
Other96.1%
Vulnerability Management
 

Featured Reviews

RO
IT Security Expert at Alior Bank S.A.
Unified risk scoring has improved our cloud visibility and simplifies remediation priorities
Qualys TotalCloud provides unified vulnerability and threat assessment across both IAS and SaaS. This solution provides a single prioritized view of risk, which helps reduce the work I would have to do. We are no longer based on CVSS; we are based on Qualys risk scoring, which is based on CVSS plus internal findings made by Qualys, and then assigns its own score. The TruRisk insight feature has found a small number of assets with high vulnerability scores, though I am cautious since some information is classified. Qualys TotalCloud has positively impacted our bank's performance, and we have definitely seen benefits after implementing this solution.
SL
Guardium Administrator at Interactive Group
Improvements sought in database optimization while benefiting from robust security monitoring
We use the analytical functionality of Guardium, but the analytical functionality is not so powerful or flexible because it does not include the application user ID. It only includes the database user ID. To identify risky users, it does not support end users, so IBM must incorporate this feature into the built-in analytical engine of the Guardium. There is only one problem I experienced while using Guardium: the internal database of the collector is MySQL, which is not so powerful or flexible. When you make a query in a MySQL database, it takes too much time to respond. IBM should replace this MySQL database with a more powerful internal database for the logging mechanism so that Guardium can collect logging data flexibly and ensure optimization. My overall experience with Guardium is good. The only problem is that IBM must replace the internal DB, MySQL, with a more powerful enterprise-level database because enterprises use it at an enterprise level, and MySQL does not support optimally.
reviewer2800203 - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Cloud posture management has improved remediation and optimizes costs with contextual risk insights
Since I have not used Orca Security for 10 months, I am uncertain what areas still need improvement, as they may have rolled out features that addressed issues I faced in the past. However, I can say the tool is good. A few things could potentially be improved, particularly regarding false positives and the UI. What I observed is that they release updates to the platform without notifying the customer. Every time the UI is upgraded, they release something without notification. This could be a slight improvement. If they released some kind of notification to just inform the customer about UI changes, the customer would be aware of the changes that Orca Security is making in the backend.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"TruRisk Insights is the most important innovation they've released this year."
"Once you have your vulnerabilities fixed and your patches pushed out using Qualys TotalCloud, then you are able to eliminate threats and cyber risk."
"Qualys TotalCloud's most valuable features are its security capabilities that help identify and mitigate risk factors."
"The best part I like is the on-demand scans."
"Its dashboards are brilliant. It provides in-depth insights."
"The best feature would be the ability to create policies. It is easy to control and update policies as required."
"While automatic inventory detection upon connection is a helpful feature, a truly valuable capability would be assessing an environment's security posture against Azure and CIS best practices."
"If I had to say something positive about the product that brings me the biggest benefit, I would say it has accurate reports, gets new update CVEs, zero-day attack detection, and is easy to manage with its GUI."
"It helped with some of the regulatory requirements, and it also helped with some of the security analytics and analysis, making it worthwhile from that perspective."
"The Vulnerability Assessment feature is quite stable and helps identify numerous vulnerabilities in databases."
"The best feature is that you can see the activity in your data environment and have the ability to get the vulnerability assessments done quickly with scores that can be compared."
"The reporting features are good and there are many built-in reports that can be quickly configured."
"The most valuable feature is that it provides a simple English recommendation on actions that you need to take once a vulnerability is discovered."
"There are so many valuable features that I could list, but one that I appreciate is the PCI DSS compliance report."
"Orca Security typically delivers three major positive changes, in my opinion: a faster understanding of risks in cloud environments, better prioritization, and less noise."
"Overall, I think Orca Security is the leader because of the strategic features I mentioned."
"Orca Security has helped reduce the time it takes to address cloud security alerts."
"Orca Security saves resources because it provides the actual output on the screen with the package path."
"Overall, I'm thoroughly impressed with this product, which is the best way I can put it."
"We really enjoy using Orca; it's a very well-designed, well-executed product, I'm really super-impressed, this is a game-changer."
"Using Orca Security, I have visibility in our environment without depending on another team."
 

Cons

"There is a lack of data segregation according to criticality or inventory."
"The onboarding process is a bit difficult. In the initial phase, it is very difficult to understand the features, what the dashboard contains, and what criteria they are using."
"Two areas for improvement in Qualys TotalCloud are the speed of the public cloud platform and vulnerability detection."
"The support is not up to the mark and seems to be overburdened."
"The main area needing improvement is integration. Although the team is strengthening TotalCloud, integration can be enhanced with SIEM, SOAR, ITSM, and other sources."
"The cloud licensing unit system is unclear, especially since "units" aren't well-defined."
"In a future release, I suggest that zero-day vulnerabilities should be predicted in advance using AI technologies. The system is not 100% secure yet, so proactive threat hunting could be enhanced to be more proactive than the current system."
"Qualys' customer service provides quality answers, but the response time is long, even though it is within the SLA."
"It was not as easy to use. The user-friendliness of it was somewhat lower than what I was expecting. It was also lacking in terms of the ease of the setup. There should be an automatic agent for deployment."
"The only problem is that some of the reports come up with blanks and missing data."
"Building policies is not that easy. There are some things that are turned off by default, for example, displaying values."
"There is only one problem I experienced while using Guardium: the internal database of the collector is MySQL, which is not so powerful or flexible."
"The interface could be improved by having sub-groups of tests, ultimately making the process of collecting tests faster."
"I wouldn't use it. That would be my advice to others looking into implementing IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment."
"They can expand a little bit in anti-malware detection. While we have pretty good confidence that it's going to detect some of the static malware, some of the detections are heuristics. There could be a growth in the library from where they're pulling their information, but we don't get a lot of those alerts based on the design of our products. In general, that might be an area that needs to be filled since they offer it as a service within it."
"I have concerns about OCI support. When I work with Orca Security, the support for OCI is limited, so I cannot effectively work with the OCI environment."
"There were a couple of times when Orca was down when I was trying to access it."
"I would be happy if they offered more automatic remediation options. They're working on that, but the more the better. For example, if they want you to harden a server, they would offer a hardening script that would be more aware of what's going on."
"We are PCI DSS compliant, so we need to scan our environment externally with tools vetted by the PCI DSS organization. Orca doesn't scan the environment externally. It only scans what's currently in the cloud."
"There were a couple of times when Orca was down when I was trying to access it. I work strange hours because all of my team is in the UK right now. It was 2 a.m. on a Saturday and I was trying to log in but it wasn't working. But relative to my other security tools, Orca is definitely the most stable that I've seen."
"The timeout settings could be made more customizable, as sometimes if I leave the office early, it's still running unless manually turned off."
"Orca Security could improve its ticket creation process. Currently, it allows for creating tickets in only one bucket, which requires monitoring to redirect tickets to the appropriate team."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"While Qualys TotalCloud's pricing is currently acceptable, it is becoming increasingly expensive and may soon be considered overpriced."
"It isn't cheap, but it's reasonable. It helps us to manage things with very few resources."
"Its price seems higher compared to other tools, but it is worth it. If they could adjust the pricing and make it comparable with other tools, that would be great."
"Qualys TotalCloud is cost-efficient and was selected for its value compared to other products."
"The cost is high, but it meets our organizational needs."
"Although Qualys TotalCloud is relatively expensive due to its unique automation features, its cost-effectiveness is rated an eight out of ten, with ten being the most costly."
"Qualys TotalCloud offers good pricing that is affordable and competitive with the market. Our partnership also provides us with additional benefits."
"Qualys TotalCloud offers competitive pricing given its comprehensive suite of features, including integration, assessment, remediation, and detection capabilities, all within a single platform."
"One thing not advantageous for it was that it was a little bit more expensive. I would rate it one out of five in terms of pricing."
"Orca Security charges are based on cloud workloads. So, it's based on workloads. If we look at one feature, it might be expensive."
"The most expensive solution is Palo Alto. They claim to be very robust. The next most expensive is Wiz, followed by Orca and all the rest."
"Orca is very competitive when compared to the alternatives and is not the most expensive in the market, that's for sure."
"While it's competitive with Palo Alto Prisma, I think Orca's list price is very high. I would advise Orca to lower it because, at that price, I might consider alternatives like Wiz, which also offers agentless services."
"The price is a bit expensive for smaller organizations."
"Overall, the pricing is reasonable and the discounts have been acceptable."
"I think their pricing model is aligned with market demand. Of course, Orca could probably better align their pricing model with the needs of smaller businesses as well as some larger-scale enterprises with millions of assets. But in all fairness, I think the Orca sales team has been accommodating and ensured that we're happy with the pricing."
"Orca Security is cheaper compared to other solutions in the same space."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
29%
Healthcare Company
7%
Construction Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise29
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?
Areas that need improvement in every solution include the remediation part. The remediation steps should be simple en...
What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?
Our use case involves the assets that we have under cloud, the assets exposed to the internet, and the internal appli...
What needs improvement with IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment?
We use the analytical functionality of Guardium, but the analytical functionality is not so powerful or flexible beca...
What is your primary use case for IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment?
We are still using IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment. We only use IBM Guardium Data Protection and monitoring, da...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment?
We do not use IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment for data encryption or any other tool for analytics, or identity ...
What needs improvement with Orca Security?
Orca Security could benefit from more agentic workflows, where agentic workflows could be integrated with Orca Securi...
What is your primary use case for Orca Security?
Orca Security serves as a centralized solution within our organization that offers scanning of all issues found in ou...
What advice do you have for others considering Orca Security?
The advice I would give is that you can make good use of the issues depending on different organizational use cases. ...
 

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Information Not Available
BeyondTrust, Postman, Digital Turbine, Solarisbank, Lemonade, C6 Bank, Docebo, Vercel, and Vivino
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment vs. Orca Security and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.