Google, IBM and Symantec have come out on top in a Forrester Wave report on the best data security portfolio providers. The research house rated Microsoft, Oracle, Varonis, McAfee, Micro Focus, and Forcepoint as “Strong Performers” and Digital Guardian, Imperva, GTB Technologies, and Dell as “Contenders.”
The report – a guide for buyers considering their purchasing options in a technology marketplace and the equivalent to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant – used a methodology that takes 25 criteria into account. These include security data analytics, marketing approach and access control. These 25 criteria have been grouped into three categories: Current Offering, Strategy, Market Presence.
Symantec
Cybersecurity firm Symantec was considered a leader for its blend of information protection and advanced threat protection. These services are part of the company’s Integrated Cyber Defense platform, which lets users view all endpoints in the network and helps organisations mitigate data loss and authentication issues.
The report found that: “Symantec supports a Zero Trust approach across a broad array of capabilities spanning data, endpoint, and network security. In data security, strengths include robust visibility and control via data loss prevention, access control, and encryption. Weaknesses include manageability and methods of data obfuscation beyond encryption.”
Forrester said: “Google supports a Zero Trust approach with its capabilities to identify data, map flows, encrypt, control access, and automate. Strengths include depth and granularity in access control and security data analytics. Weaknesses include user-driven data classification and file encryption. Customers appreciate Google’s ease of deployment and scalability of its capabilities. Google is a good fit for buyers whose infrastructure runs on Google Cloud and G Suite.”
IBM
IBM was also considered a leader in the field as they focus on risk management and data security compliance. “IBM supports a Zero Trust approach with capabilities that span data security, security automation and orchestration, and security analytics. In data security, strengths include data intelligence that brings together data risk and business context, in addition to obfuscation capabilities such as encryption and dynamic data masking. Weaknesses include native Guardium security data analytics, access control, and data deletion capabilities. Customers are generally satisfied with IBM’s support and willingness to help, although its documentation could use improvement. IBM is a good fit for buyers seeking to centrally reduce and manage data risks across disparate database environments.”
In what might be considered an honourable mention category, Thales and Gemalto were mentioned in the report (despite their overall exclusion from the rankings) for having strong encryption software and hardware. The research house’s analysts said: “Despite their having a robust portfolio of encryption-specific offerings for data security portfolio, Forrester Wave requires vendors to have at least six out of eight capabilities in the data control framework”, effectively ruling the two out of contention.
The full report can be found here.
