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IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs Oracle Database Vault comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

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

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
Oracle Database Vault
Ranking in Database Security
5th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
4.4
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Database Security category, the mindshare of IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is 27.5%, down from 33.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Database Vault is 3.3%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Security Guardium Data Protection27.5%
Oracle Database Vault3.3%
Other69.2%
Database Security
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Johny Baby - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Role-based security has protected structured workloads but integration still needs improvement
I need to check certain aspects at this point as I do not have comments on price or those options at this moment. Support and service level agreements depend more on your agreement with Oracle and your TAT in terms of the agreement type, which has a certain SLA based on that. The overall review rating for this product is seven out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Efficiency is key and IBM Guardium provides information in a heartbeat, but protects the data with military grade encryption."
"From the perspective of analysis and prevention, this product is pretty accurate."
"Security policy enforcement of policy-based encryption and centralized encryption key management allows us to maintain data in a secure environment."
"It has automated a bunch of manual tasks, giving us insights into activities that we would not otherwise be able to capture."
"It's one of the first to encrypt DB2 databases."
"Guardium is easily integrated with other IBM solutions, a significant advantage and a key reason we chose Guardium. Both platforms share the IBM infrastructure, enhancing compatibility and integration. Additionally, Guardium offers a vulnerability analyzer, which is another compelling feature of the platform."
"It allows us to put in controls to make sure that only the right persons access the proper records in the database."
"The most valuable feature is using the capture operation mode “S-TAP/K-TAP agent”, because all activities in the database are captured, including direct access to the database server by privileged users. This is useful because, even if the database server logs were deleted, the Guardium Collector has already stored such data to enable traceability of access."
"Oracle Database is one of the most reliable structured databases, making it highly trustworthy."
"It encrypts data traveling across the network."
"Oracle Database Vault has been valuable for database security in maritime companies and ports."
"I haven’t seen any other database perform as well as Oracle."
"The product is easy to use and provides good performance."
"The product is fairly easy to implement."
 

Cons

"The manuals should be clearer. There needs to be an online course or tutorial for faster management training."
"I would like to see a lot of additional reporting and analytics features. They have basic outlier detection, but I would love to see that go further, and model it after analytics tools like Splunk."
"I would like to see IBM Guardium have other encryption algorithms employed."
"It would be helpful, and convenient to improve the Chat support."
"Could be more user friendly; deployment is a little complex."
"More automation, user guides, and tips would make this solution better."
"Right now we're having some issues where it's using a high CPU, we don't know why. So, better testing before the product is ready would help."
"They could enable the out-of-the-box feature to track application user activity."
"The product's cost could be better."
"The integration aspect could be improved through additional APIs to integrate with various SAML protocols and Active Directory protocols, which would be more helpful."
"Oracle's technical support could be improved."
"The solution is excessively expensive. There is a lot of room for improvement, considering the pricing model of the solution."
"Oracle Database Vault is not easy to set up, and if I lose the key, it can lead to significant issues."
"The solution is relatively expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's an expensive solution"
"We haven't talked much about pricing and licencing. But it is not cheap for sure"
"For IBM Guardium, licensing is very simple and straightforward. There are no issues I can speak of."
"I would suggest to review the type of data, need for security, and if the organizational structure needs the options IBM Guardium provides."
"Guardium's pricing is quite high, but it gives good value for money for all sizes of enterprises, especially for partners."
"Guardium has not saved us time or money."
"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."
"The product is more costly than its competitors."
"I rate the product's pricing a ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Insurance Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise44
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Database Vault?
I do not handle pricing, so I am not aware of pricing details related to Oracle Database Vault.
What needs improvement with Oracle Database Vault?
The integration aspect could be improved through additional APIs to integrate with various SAML protocols and Active Directory protocols, which would be more helpful.The solution is somewhat comple...
What is your primary use case for Oracle Database Vault?
We continue to work with Oracle Database in various capacities. Oracle Database Vault is part of our infrastructure. We work with it, especially for structured databases and high-volume workloads, ...
 

Also Known As

InfoSphere Guardium, Guardium, IBM Guardium
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs. Oracle Database Vault and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.