Key Criteria for Evaluating Managed Security Servicesv1.0

An Evaluation Guide for Technology Decision-Makers

Table of Contents

  1. Summary
  2. Managed Security Services Primer
  3. Report Methodology
  4. Decision Criteria Analysis
  5. Evaluation Metrics
  6. Key Criteria: Impact Analysis
  7. Analyst’s Take
  8. About Paul Stringfellow

1. Summary

All businesses face significant and complex cybersecurity challenges.

  • Threats are constant and evolving rapidly; they can be targeted or random, malicious or accidental, and come from outside or inside an organization. Regardless of the origin, the impact is the same: major disruption, loss of business, reputational damage, and even legal action.
  • There are hundreds of cybersecurity technology vendors, all with different approaches, answers, and tools to thwart cybercriminals.
  • Increasingly, security and IT teams are asked to make do with fewer resources and smaller budgets.
  • Exacerbating these issues are major skills shortages, leaving many businesses without the expertise to handle a cybersecurity incident.

These challenges and more present a dizzying array of considerations for security teams.

To combat growing complexity and shrinking resources, organizations are seeking external support—providers that can either augment the organization’s existing internal skills and tools with a more proactive detection and response service, or to whom they can fully outsource their security management.

Identifying the right managed security service is not a trivial task. Handing over a business’s cybersecurity operations must be done carefully, with a clear understanding of what is required and what will be delivered. However, finding the right service offers major benefits. It will save you time, greatly strengthen your security posture, vastly increase your capability to defend against attack, and more quickly resolve threats and incidents as they occur, enormously reducing their impact.

This GigaOm Key Criteria report details the criteria and evaluation metrics for selecting an effective managed security service. The companion GigaOm Radar report identifies providers that excel in those criteria and metrics. Together, these reports provide an overview of the category and its underlying technology, identify leading offerings, and help decision-makers evaluate these platforms so they can make a more informed investment decision.

How to Read this Report

This GigaOm report is one of a series of documents that helps IT organizations assess competing solutions in the context of well-defined features and criteria. For a fuller understanding, consider reviewing the following reports:

Key Criteria report: A detailed market sector analysis that assesses the impact that key product features and criteria have on top-line solution characteristics—such as scalability, performance, and TCO—that drive purchase decisions.

GigaOm Radar report: A forward-looking analysis that plots the relative value and progression of vendor solutions along multiple axes based on strategy and execution. The Radar report includes a breakdown of each vendor’s offering in the sector.

Solution Profile: An in-depth vendor analysis that builds on the framework developed in the Key Criteria and Radar reports to assess a company’s engagement within a technology sector. This analysis includes forward-looking guidance around both strategy and product.

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