Thursday, 27 May 2010 11:56 4503 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fblog.q1labs.com%2F2010%2F05%2F27%2Fthird-party-validation-in-the-siem-space-who-you-goin-to-call%2FThird+Party+Validation+in+the+SIEM+Space.++%27Who+you+goin%27+to+call%3F%272010-05-27+16%3A56%3A18Tom+Turnerhttp%3A%2F%2Fblog.q1labs.com%2F%3Fp%3D450

Posted by Tom Turner in Threat Management

Now that the 2010 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SIEM has been published, all the usual crowing, explaining or apologizing is taking place in the vendor community.  We find ourselves in the position where we can crow, but I certainly remember our early days in the cyber security market where that single picture caused a lot of explaining (to customers) and apologizing (to sales people).  There have been some clever and thought provoking blogs on this subject already that you can check out here and here that speak to the dominance of Gartner’s opinion in the SIEM space.

The power of ‘that picture’ brings up the topic of validation in a customer’s decision process.  Let’s face it, we all want it, whatever we buy.  Gartner, JD Power, Consumer Reports, customer reviews on Amazon, they all point to the necessity of 3rd party validation.  These resources should help us to become aware of our options and also to form preference.

But let’s be clear on the value of the Magic Quadrant for SIEM.  It is a way for people to define their shortlist of potential vendors to look at, and as such is only really an awareness tool.  Customers sell the value of someone like a Gartner short if they think that a single snapshot of a market is a way to make an informed decision.

Forming a preference, and ultimately making a decision, needs to be about looking at a solution in the context of desired use cases.  Preference and decision should also be influenced by a broader set of factors:  peer group feedback, partner counsel, local and vertical market share, and I am sure there are other considerations that I’ve missed.

While the talk will always be about how someone fared in the Quadrant (by the way did I mention we did great , Gartner has also published an additional piece of research that will help customers with forming preference and making decisions.  It is a use case evaluation of the top products in the market:  Critical Capabilities for Security Information
and Event Management Technology. It is a good read, so if your answer to the Question: “Who you goin’ to call?” is “Gartner!”….make sure you spend time on the Critical Capabilities document too. Oh, and I must mention (I am a vendor after all) that Q1 Labs ranks Number 2 in ALL use cases, in a strong field of twelve suppliers.