The only Visionary in the 2014 Gartner MQ for SIEM.

LONDON, 30 July 2014 – At the start of this month, July, the 2014 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Security Information and Event Management was released. The exact same 6 companies appear on the right hand side as in the 2013 ‘MQ’. That AlienVault again cements its position as the sole resident of the Visionary Quadrant for the second year running is extraordinary, given both the raft of vendors present there in the 2012 MQ and with the pace of development the Security Industry has witnessed.

Gartner’s Magic Quadrants

Magic Quadrants are annual reports put together by IT research firm Gartner, which identifies leading vendors in particular fields, and measures them against a vertical axis “Ability to Execute” and a horizontal axis “Completeness of Vision”. The comparisons are made through interviews and Vendor Briefings, weighing up not just the market share or revenue generated, but also against their vision and development plans for the solution.

Positioning on these reports have become extremely important to vendors as more and more customers have turned to the Gartner Magic Quadrants for an easy comparison guide when making decisions on which solution to choose – so much so that not appearing on an MQ can automatically filter out a vendor as a considered option.

Infosec Partners’ Commercial Director, Fran Ordillano explains.

“Having worked closely with Gartner, I’ve found that the best analysts are very aware of the Security Industry, and I often got some great insight into other (sometimes competitor) vendors. Kelly Kavanagh, being the lead analyst for the SIEM MQ certainly adds weight to this report.”

"What AlienVault has achieved with their continuous movement to the right (their increasing ‘Completeness of Vision'), really shows that their SIEM product development and positioning is built on a solid concept, although interestingly one could argue that they are not actually a dedicated SIEM vendor at all."

SIEM vs USM

Security intelligence helps achieve visibility on what is happening in an organizations’ network environment from a threat and compliance standpoint. Traditional SIEM products typically focus on the Event Correlation component and require extensive integration with other 3^rd party solutions, so it’s no coincidence that these traditional and more expensive competitors of AlienVault, are often deployed by Enterprises with very large budgets and large security teams, over a longer period of time.

AlienVault offers organizations a more holistic approach to security, through a Unified Security Management (USM) solution. By offering excellent SIEM Log/Event Management and Correlation, and marrying these to security technologies such as Asset Discovery, Vulnerability Assessment, Intrusion Detection, and Continuous Threat Intelligence, this results in an effective integrated solution that can be implemented and managed in far less time and at a fraction of the cost.

Perfect for Small and Midsize

Gartner's vertical positioning of AlienVault should also be addressed. It is worth noting here that Gartner's main focus group has traditionally been the larger enterprise organizations, and when you add into the fact that their international viewpoint is primarily towards North America and Western Europe, you'll realize that this may have an effect on their positioning of AlienVault's "Ability to Execute". Globally, Infosec Partners have noted that there has been a continuing rise in interest of AlienVault's USM in the Asia Pacific (APAC), Latin American (LATAM) and Middle East and Africa (MEA) regions, markets which are predominantly made up of Small and Midsize organizations.

Having implemented and managed traditional SIEM, Infosec Partners understands more than most what it takes to have a well-deployed SIEM solution. By translating business use cases into technology, Infosec Partners enables clients to make the decision on which solution fits best with their overall business goals.

With solutions that were previously only affordable to large enterprise organizations, now much more attainable through AlienVault’s USM, Infosec Partners expects even more of its small and midsize clients to implement SIEM. Because AlienVault's USM provides built-in essential security capability on top of all the functionality of a traditional SIEM, without the financial impact of a tradition SIEM solution, it certainly offers an extremely attractive solution for those looking to optimize their security budget.

It takes Vision…

Whether part of a strategy to strengthen security posture, or to meet with compliance requirements such as PCI DSS, the choice of which SIEM solution to implement needs to be well thought through first. As a trusted adviser to significant organizations, Infosec Partners has a track record of guiding executive teams with their overall security strategy, either acting as - or assisting incumbent - Chief Information Security Officers, as well as having teams of technical experts to deploy, configure and manage solutions such as SIEM and USM.

Although principally vendor agnostic, Infosec Partners recognizes and appreciates the effectiveness of what AlienVault has to offer. Indeed many clients of Infosec Partners continue to be satisfied with their USM implementation. Very often, Boards and senior executives need help in navigating their way through the maze of Information Security solutions on offer. Infosec Partners provides clients with this vision borne of expertise and experience, establishing whether the only Visionary in the 2014 Gartner MQ for SIEM is the right choice for them, and if so making sure it’s implemented effectively to meet their business needs.