What is the Gartner Magic Quadrant for SIEM?
Gartner defines the SIEM market as “the customer’s need to analyze event data in real time for early detection of targeted attacks and data breaches, and to collect, store, investigate and report on log data for incident response, forensics and regulatory compliance”.
The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) is a report put out every 1-2 years to showcase the state of the SIEM market and its vendors. The company evaluates organizations on an “ability to execute” and “completeness of vision” scale. In addition to evaluating SIEM tools, these reports come out for a variety of industries and technologies, and they serve as a powerful source for businesses evaluating which vendors and services may fit their needs.
Plotting the vendors
Once Gartner has analyzed a selection of organizations and their SIEM businesses based on the ability to execute and completeness of vision criteria, the vendors are plotted into one of four categories: niche players, challengers, visionaries, and leaders.
The niche players are generally focused on a smaller market segment where they perform well, or they are stagnant when it comes to innovating their offering. Challengers typically also execute well in their market segment (which can be large), but they don’t illustrate a strong understanding of how their program will evolve with where the market is heading in the future. Visionaries are full of new ideas and how to execute them, but they are still in the process of proving success when acting on that vision. Leaders, in turn, are generally both well-positioned in today’s market and understand where they’re going in the future.
The Magic Quadrants are continually evolving, and an organization’s placement will vary from year to year depending on their overall investment and vision in that market.
Evaluation criteria from 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SIEM Assessment
Completeness of Vision
Market Understanding: The ability of the vendor to understand current ande merging buyer needs and to translate those needs into products and services.
Marketing Strategy: Clear, differentiated messaging consistently communicated internally, externalized through social media, advertising, customer programs, and positioning statements.
Sales Strategy: A sound strategy for selling that uses the appropriate networks including: direct and indirect sales, marketing, service, and communication.
Offering (Product) Strategy: An approach to product development and deliverythat emphasizes market differentiation, functionality, methodology, and features as they map to current and future requirements.
Vertical/ Industry Strategy: We evaluate vendor strategies to support SIEM requirements that are specific to different market segments, including industry verticals, including those subject to regulatory requirements, and those addressing operational technology or Internet of Things use cases.
Innovation: We evaluate vendors’ development and delivery of SIEM technology that is differentiated from the competition in a way that uniquely meets critical customer requirements.
Geographic Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the specific needs of geographies outside the "home" or native geography, either directly or through partners, channels and subsidiaries, as appropriate for that geography and market.
Ability to Execute
Product/Service: Core products that compete in the SIEM market. This includes current product capabilities, quality, features, etc.
Overall Viability (Business Unit, FInancial, Strategy, Organization): Financials: Viability includes an assessment of the vendor's overall revenues as well as the financial and practical success of the business unit.
Sales Execution/ Pricing: We evaluate the technology provider's success in the SIEM market and its capabilities in presales activities.
Market Responsiveness and Track Record: We evaluate the alignment of the SIEM offering to the functional requirements stated by buyers, and thevendor's track record in delivering new functions when they are needed by the market.
Marketing Execution: The clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed to deliver the organization's message in order to influence the market, promote the brand, increase awareness of products and establish a positive identification in the minds of customers.
Customer Experience: We evaluate pre-sales, sales, product function and service experience within production environments.
Operations: We evaluate the organization's service, support and sales resources across multiple vertical markets, organization size, and geographies.
Contextualizing the Gartner Magic Quadrant for SIEM
The primary goal of the Magic Quadrant is to position players within a specific market. This enables organizations to consider their own goals, needs, and priorities when looking at the technologies and services available to them. The Magic Quadrant offers analysis by industry, company size, and region to make it as useful as possible to businesses.
The report also includes each vendor’s strengths and cautions, as well as a breakdown of the methodology used to evaluate vendors and the SIEM landscape as a whole. In conjunction with the Magic Quadrant, Gartner also publishes its complementary Critical Capabilities report to offer additional insight into each product and vendor highlighted in the MQ.