We use it for monitoring database activity. This includes tracking databases such as MySQL, Oracle, and others. It monitors activities such as logins and logouts, capturing whether they were system or user logins. It also records the execution of scripts and the details of each script run. Additionally, it performs vulnerability assessments on databases and can enforce database lockdowns.

It can help with PCI compliance. It includes features like data masking, especially during queries, which supports compliance efforts. The tool also performs compliance and audit checks and allows auditors to generate ad hoc compliance reports. This helps guide organizations on areas for improvement.

Many clients inquire if the solution includes a database firewall, which it doesn’t. While it could be a valuable addition, the current tool focuses on database-level protection rather than network-level protection. For instance, it can prevent unauthorized changes to specific tables and send alerts if such changes are attempted. However, it doesn’t block data in transit or handle network-level security. The database firewall feature clients often request would address network-level security, which is different from our tool's database-level monitoring and protection.

I have been using IBM Security Guardium Data Protection as a partner for seven years.

The product is stable.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

It is suitable for small, medium, and enterprise organizations. However, it is most commonly adopted by medium to large enterprises.

The solution is highly scalable. You can start with a small setup and expand monitoring as needed. You can increase the number of databases you monitor, provided you can support it.

I rate the solution’s scalability a nine out of ten.

The response time could be improved. Navigating support for the solution can be challenging, especially when finding the right contact for specialized issues. Improvements could make raising tickets and identifying the correct support channels easier. While general support information is provided, specialized support may require contacting different teams.

We guide our clients through this process to ensure they know where to turn for various needs. Typically, we are the first point of contact for any issues, big or small, and then direct them to the appropriate resources. The quality of technical support largely depends on the expertise of the partner who implemented the solution. If you have a partner who is well-versed in IBM, the technical support is usually excellent. If not, support might be less reliable.

Deployment is straightforward for an engineer like me. However, due to the solution's robustness, it might be a bit complex for someone new. Understanding the solution is key to effective deployment. For optimal results and best practices, it's advisable to have a specialist handle and implement the solution.

It is available both on-premises and in the cloud. However, about ninety percent of our deployments are on-premises since we primarily work with financial institutions. Cloud deployments are typically chosen if the data is already hosted.

The deployment of the solution itself and the integration of databases can vary in time. Depending on the organization's size and the complexity of the integration, it may take anywhere from one day to two weeks.

It is a premium protection solution, and so is the price. The cost is justified by the value and protection it provides in the market of database activity monitoring.

As a database activity monitoring tool, it automates most tasks related to database management, minimizing the need for human interaction. It is precious in terms of cost savings for financial institutions such as banks and credit unions. It provides comprehensive monitoring of database activities, which can be crucial for preventing audits and fraud.

I recommend the solution.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

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.

We are currently facing a challenge because it does not offer data encryption by default, only data masking. When we decide to implement data encryption, we must purchase an additional add-on, which incurs extra costs.

Data encryption and data masking often work together in organizations. Therefore, using different products for these functions, such as Oracle for data management and a plugin for data masking, creates a burden on our systems. We have to install and manage multiple agents, like Oracle's light agents and IBM's agents.

IBM should include data encryption in its standard package. This would streamline operations and reduce the complexity and cost of managing separate data protection solutions.

Currently, it supports cross-platform integration but does not support integration with flat file databases. IBM Guardium integrates well with international databases like MySQL and Oracle, making it easy to use with these systems. We need to develop a plugin to integrate flat file databases with Guardium.

I have been using IBM Security Guardium Data Protection for three years.

I rate the solution’s stability as seven out of ten.

The solution is scalable. We have no issues regarding scalability. 50 users are using this solution.

I rate the solution’s scalability a nine out of ten.

Support is very effective. Once we generate a ticket with IBM, they respond very quickly.

When acquiring a cloud security solution, our primary goal is to ensure robust protection for our organization. Data security becomes critical, especially when considering local vendors and regulatory requirements. We opted to purchase IBM and integrate it with our cloud security measures. We compared Guardium with other products like Oracle and found it superior.

Guardium Data Protection offers more straightforward implementation, policy management, and cost-effectiveness. Current reviews on open-source sites favor Guardium over Oracle for data masking and issue resolution.

Initially, we faced challenges integrating the software we currently run in our organization. With the passage of time and the deployment of more vertices and resources within the organization, we try to overcome challenges, but challenges occur from time to time.

The deployment depends on the type of integration being performed. For example, in our recent data marketing project, we encountered four days of connectivity issues. Typically, connectivity is established within two to three days. We then utilized the SDP functionality in the third-party data, successfully completing the integration. However, on the fourth day, when we started pushing folders, we encountered issues and generated a ticket with IBM. IBM identified a few problems, indicating that the time required for deployment varies based on the product and the specific tasks being performed. Some databases can be integrated within an hour, while others may take four to five days.

The price is high because Oracle and other peer products offer lower prices, gaining market share. IBM is the market leader, but they need to reconsider their pricing structure. There is a lot of potential in the public learning market. If IBM offers a more competitive price, it will be better positioned against its competitors.

We are a large organization using IBM. Smaller organizations don't even think about taking IBM because it is an expensive solution.

I rate the product's pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

We are currently in the deployment phase of vulnerability analysis. In two or three months, IBM will be better positioned to provide details about each candidate.

Data Protection is a highly effective product that provides comprehensive security to our organization's servers. One major benefit is its seamless integration with IBM QRadar. Additionally, it easily integrates with our databases and other products, such as our router instances. Overall, it helps create a complete technology stack.

One of its main benefits is integrating with related technologies, forming a robust IBM technology stack. It offers comprehensive integration with databases, including NoSQL databases. IBM provides encryption within a single stack, making it a composite product ready for the market and competitive with other solutions such as Palantir's.

We have a team of around five people responsible for troubleshooting and maintenance. Our information security team includes the database and software teams, which are managed separately. It is part of DBT, which handles database management.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use it for activity monitoring and vulnerability assessments.

The features I like are the robust policies, which allow us to create customized monitoring based on specific activities.

Also, the dynamic encryption and masking functionality is interesting. And the vulnerability assessment feature is comprehensive; we can scan for specific vulnerabilities.

The main issue I have with IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is the support. It's not good. They're slow, and they don't seem to resolve issues effectively. We have an ongoing problem that they haven't been able to fix.

We had an issue with the setup that we've been trying to resolve. The reports are not coming out the way I want them to.

I'm not enjoying the support. They don't always resolve issues, and sometimes logged cases seem to disappear. The support is not good for me. They should resolve issues as they're escalated.

It's stable. However, it does require a lot of resources.

I would rate the stability a six out of ten.

The solution itself is straightforward. The implementation was fine.

We set up the central manager, the archive, agents on the database servers, and S-TAPs on the collectors. Then, we configured policies and reports.

I would recommend using it. It is good for database protection.

The product itself is good, but the support is lacking. I'd rate it a seven out of ten.

The first implementation of the solution in our company was carried out in 2011. The use cases for the solution may vary from customer to customer, but majorly the product is used for compliance and ensuring the privileged users are properly monitored and audited.

For example, our company has used the tool for masking activities. The basic objective of the solution remains to ensure the ideal monitoring of service accounts and detect suspicious activities, which help our company block suspicious activities. In our organization, IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is used on a highly expensive server. The product implements real-time data monitoring.

One of the customer's major concerns is monitoring local users; installation of the agent is necessary. Once the agent is installed on the DB, users expect the server to operate without crashing or restarting. The maturity of the agent is the most valuable feature of the solution.

I believe IBM Security Guardium Data Protection has been available since 2004, so it has become a mature product. In our organization, we would recommend IBM Security Guardium Data Protection as the top product to others, wherever database security is concerned. I would overall rate the solution an eight out of ten. I believe the solution must be upgraded further in accordance with emerging technologies such as AI.

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.

I have been using IBM Security Guardium Data Protection for about 14 years.

It's a stable product. Once our organization's customers deploy the solution, they don't face any issues with it. For some use cases, the policies for the solution need to be adjusted, and our company provides suitable training to the customers. Our organization also assists customers in deploying the solution in unique environments and upgrading existing environments.

Our organization finds the solution to be scalable. Our company team works with the distribution or deployment models of the solution, which allows upscaling whenever needed. Once our company deploys the solution for a particular number of databases, we observe the system to determine whether it's working perfectly and then we start adding more DBs, which requires additional licensing.

Our company also helps scale the solution's infrastructure. The product's initial design supports expansion within the existing infrastructure. IBM Security Guardium Data Protection offers a flexible deployment model.

In our company, when we faced issues we could not solve on our own, we contacted tech support, and they were quite helpful in resolving the issues within the allocated time. I would rate the solution's tech support an eight out of ten.

Usually, in our company, we have deployed IBM Security Guardium Data Protection in a similar and suitable environment, where the data flows in one direction, but there have been use cases where bidirectional integration was required. The product efficiently sends the data and logs to the desired destination.

The product exhibits an easy setup process; additional configuration might be needed in some cases, for example, if a customer wants to implement an enterprise load balancer on the agent side. Overall, IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is easy to deploy and maintain.

For the deployment process, the first step is to understand the customer's requirements, which is followed by recommendations for our company on how to implement them efficiently. After the aforementioned step, our company assists the customer with the licensing of IBM Security Guardium Data Protection.

Post the aforementioned step, our company team works on the deployment model and pre-discussed policies or end objectives. After the solution's deployment, our company team carries out fine-tuning and monitoring.

Our company shares the customized implementation plan with the customer on how we are going to deploy the solution; for instance, if we need to implement it in an enterprise environment, we ensure the features are redundant and the solution is safe from failures. On average, the solution's deployment takes around four to five weeks, given that there are around 20 databases and our company team has environment access to install the agents.

As our organization is highly experienced in deploying IBM Security Guardium Data Protection in Pakistan, we require a minimal number of resources and professionals for the deployment process of the solution. Three or four professionals are more than enough for the deployment of IBM Security Guardium Data Protection.

It's difficult to quantify the solution's ROI in dollars, but our organization's customers are able to realize its value. The solution is compliant with industry standards or government rules and regulations.

For instance, our company's customers who have been using the solution for four to five years are still reliably using it, as the DBs are secure, the product runs efficiently in their system, and the desired results for audit, monitoring, and compliance can be obtained. The influence of the aforementioned advantages on the ROI has allowed our organization's customers to continue using the solution for several years.

It's an expensive solution, and it's one of the reasons why some customers of our organization hesitate before adopting IBM Security Guardium Data Protection. The licensing model of the solutions has changed over the last three to four years, and the core model has shifted to RVU. The vendor should reconsider making the price more competitive for IBM Security Guardium Data Protection.

When it comes to databases, our company prefers to work with IBM Security Guardium Data Protection. The product is more mature and well-designed and offers enhanced agents compared to competitors' solutions.

In our company, we feel highly confident that the solution will not fail when deployed on a critical machine; usually, deploying an agent on a critical production machine involves risks. I believe IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is the best product on the market. In our country, Pakistan, enterprises prefer to choose IBM Security Guardium Data Protection when considering database security systems.

The data classification feature of the solution functions satisfactorily and helps in rogue user identification. The product functions on par with the initial configuration and design intentions.

The correct authorized access identification is an important part of the product, which remains dependent on the policies. After unauthorized access is identified, our company uses the solution's blocking and quarantine features for privileged users.

The product's automated compliance reporting feature has helped our company team, especially when we worked on PCI accelerators for our organization's customer banks. While working on PCI accelerators, our company team only needed to configure and ensure data accuracy in the reports, which was quite helpful. The tool's reporting feature also assists in connecting customers and fulfilling compliance requirements.

The vulnerability assessment feature of the tool can be easily configured, and it's a critical part of the deployment as it helps customers identify gaps in the existing environment with comprehensive reports.

database security

We use it for security purposes, particularly because we have customers in financial sectors, banks, and other high profile industries.

The risk spotter which helps to get insight into user activities

The monitoring of Heterogeneous DBs

Entitlement Reports which helps to gain insight on user creation and privilege escalation.

Being an IBM product it offers data security capabilities with robust features. Over the years, it has satisfactorily met the requirements of our customers which makes it a very reliable and versatile solution.

Since we are resellers we do not have enough information about the technical aspects and the areas of improvement. However, one consistent report that we receive from our customers is that IBM does not offer timely support due to the size of the organisation. It would be great if they could improve their response time.

ActivEdge has been reselling IBM Security Guardium Data Protection for the past five years.

In terms of stability, it is also stable and there is no bugs and glitches that we have faced complaints about

On a scale of 10 I will rate it 8 as there are some issues that usually arise during deployment but are usually fixed by patch updates.

The product is very scalable and we deal with majorly enterprise client. Therefore we have to make sure that the product is scalable.

The process of installation and management of the solution is very easy. You can ask for IBM's expertise, since they have been using this for years. The implementation does not really need more than three months under normal conditions.

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.

While working with the solution, you have to be clear about your requirements. The solution offers different pricing based on different functionalities. If you are able to identify your requirements properly, you are going to do well with the price and get the best out of the product. So understanding the requirements is very important. I would rate this product 8 out of 10.

We use the product to permanently protect data from unauthorized user access, malware, and external threats.

The platform provides data protection from internal and external threats. It has good features for reporting and integration with other products.

There could be a feature to integrate and protect multiple databases. The local support services need improvements as well.

We have IBM Security Guardium Data Protection implementation since 2013.

The platform has good stability.

We have almost 10,000 IBM Security Guardium Data Protection in our organization. I rate its scalability a nine out of ten.

The technical support team responds quickly. However, there could be a local team to reach out instead of contacting the headquarters.

The initial setup process is straightforward. It can be deployed on-premise and in the cloud. It takes an hour to complete deployment.

We implement the process in-house.

It is not an expensive product. We purchase its yearly license.

I recommend IBM Security Guardium Data Protection and rate it a nine out of ten.

We want to avoid unauthorized manipulation of data. We evaluated use cases like database discovery, identification of sensitive data, and installation and configuration of custom policies. We also conducted POC for alerts on DDL and DML commands, activity logs of users, restricted access for specific users, reporting, and dashboarding.

The tool helps detect invalid login attempts within a specific time frame.

The solution lacks control over database security.

Our database team has conducted a POC of the solution with the service provider. We plan to purchase the solution.

The support manager of IBM in Pakistan supported us in onboarding the technical and salespersons. They helped us draft and create the solution for our company. The support was above average.

The price is average. The tool is not cheap, but it is not expensive. The solution is worth the money.

There are other solutions like Imperva, but there are no service providers in Pakistan. We need local support as we need multiple deployments.

Since I have not implemented the product yet, I would give it an average rating. Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.

We use IBM Security Guardium Data Protection for real-time monitoring, data protection, recovery of sensitive objects, and vulnerable data scanning for databases.

It is a flexible tool for enterprises. It protects sensitive data and blocks unauthorized access to the data.

They could enable the out-of-the-box feature to track application user activity. It will help us observe the activities closely. Another area for potential improvement is implementing a feature for rate limiting the observed set returned to the client against security in a particular session.

We have been using IBM Security Guardium Data Protection for two years.

It is a stable solution. However, they could enable an in-built feature to track user activity for the applications connected to databases. When users enter credentials to authenticate themselves, Guardium should also log the activity and enter its database.

I rate the platform's scalability an eight out of ten.

The technical support services are good.

The initial setup process is user-friendly. The deployment time depends on different components, including the collector, SAP agent, immediate and integrator, central manager, deployment size, scalability needs, and specific business use cases. It's relatively easy to implement, but the organization's specific requirements determine the simplicity or complexity. The number of databases to be observed, data classification criteria, and the desired role implementations are crucial considerations. It requires one or two engineers and analysts to execute the process. They are responsible for installing and configuring the components, including agents and collectors. After that, we can collect the logs from the database based on rules and policies to analyze them. It is easy to maintain as well.

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

I recommend IBM Security Guardium Data Protection to others and rate it an eight out of ten. It is a very good enterprise-grade solution.

Guardium is a robust solution that provides reliable results. Customers are satisfied with its ease of use and switch from competing products to Guardium. One customer implemented Guardium within two months and found it fully secured their databases. Before Guardium, they faced implementation issues and unreliable monitoring reports. Now, they are expanding Guardium to protect more databases.

The only issue is opening the remote connection to the client. IBM needs to focus more on improving remote connectivity. Microsoft and Cisco provide remote connectivity and have gained customer appreciation.

The solution needs some functionality or features to be added. It might not cover Big Data.

I have been using IBM Security Guardium Data Protection since 2016.

The product is stable.

The tool is scalable.

Support is very good.

The initial setup is straightforward.

We contracted with the company. It was one of the smoothest implementations we ever had. We started and did the kickoff. After two months, they sent us the closure, acceptance server, and invoices.

The solution has a reasonable and competitive price. FortiDB is cheaper, but it doesn't provide full functionality. You can get cheaper products if you want a product to cover the audit point and don't care about the functionality. If you need a functional solution to help you, you should consider Guardium.

I recommend this solution to medium and big companies. Small customers do not need to maintain it a lot. The price and value they will get from it are worth it, especially if they need to monitor many databases and manage their environment. Guardium can help them see who accesses the databases to prevent data breaches and monitor the audit trail. Smaller companies with one or two databases can manage them by themselves, but Guardium becomes more valuable as the size of their databases and the number of users grow.

Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Our customers include financial institutions like banks, insurance companies, and government entities that use IBM Security Guardium Data Protection for the protection and hardening of their databases.

The most valuable feature of the solution for the customers is the monitoring and full log of the database activity of privileged users. It includes everything happening on the network and locally on the database server.

The solution's pricing should be reduced because it is very high. The solution could be improved for NoSQL databases. From the functionality point of view, the solution has almost everything you need for your database. Overall, the product's functionalities align with the customer's needs.

I have been using IBM Security Guardium Data Protection for more than ten years.

I rate IBM Security Guardium Data Protection a nine out of ten for stability.

Our clients are mostly enterprise businesses.

I rate IBM Security Guardium Data Protection ten out of ten for scalability.

Technical support is always challenging with IBM, but overall it's okay.

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is easy to set up and maintain.

Implementing IBM Security Guardium Data Protection takes up to ten days, but the customization and the customer requirement span from one month to six months.

You need to install the product. It's a virtual appliance or a hardware appliance depending on the implementation. When it's set up, the agent must be deployed. Then you have to set the policy. The policy relies on the outcome that the customer wants in the report regarding what has been done with the database and what has been changed.

The solution's pricing was higher before it was acquired. The policy should be for smaller customers to have SMB pricing and for bigger customers to have bigger pricing.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is very high price, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten.

It is the only solution that can meet the needs of both internal and external audits. It's a very powerful tool that can solve a lot of audit needs.

Overall, I rate IBM Security Guardium Data Protection ten out of ten.