In an era of digitalization, remote working is on the rise and businesses are implementing more cloud-based services and applications into their networks. Since cybersecurity risks are emerging and evolving as time passes, companies must be fully aware of the risks and protect their digital infrastructure.
In digitization processes, businesses need to prioritize cybersecurity. The cybersecurity market keeps on growing, and there are numerous cybersecurity vendors out there, offering various products and services ranging from frameworks to assessments. Businesses should choose cybersecurity solutions that vendors provide according to their own needs. To select the right solutions and vendors, businesses should compare cybersecurity vendors carefully. Some of the critical considerations in compering cybersecurity vendors are as follows:
- Accountability and security of vendors
- Background review and performance history
- Product evaluation
- Organizational compatibility
- Functionality and benefits
- Credibility and pricing
This article will guide you on how to compare different cybersecurity vendors. Additionally, it will give you insight into how to choose a cyber security framework as well. Comparing different cybersecurity vendors would be meaningless without product assessment because product reliability is as important as security and credibility of vendors.
Accountability and Security of Vendors
Besides what vendors have to offer and key aspects of their offers, businesses need to analyze two more issues: accountability and security of vendors. Companies should be in terms with cybersecurity vendors if their products will fail. Since data breaches and malware can hugely damage companies, vendors should be able to take responsibility to a certain extent in case it happens due to a failure of their product. So, your agreement should also include monetary compensation in specific conditions.
The security of the vendors is often not paid close attention to when comparing different cybersecurity vendors. The question here is whether they have implemented the same security standards they offer for their cybersecurity. This can give you an idea of whether they are a reliable and secure vendor or not.
Background Review & Performance History
One of the key considerations is background review and performance history. When comparing different vendors, the first thing to look into is the solutions and their components, key clients, target verticals, industries, or business types. Companies should review the background information before including them in considered vendors’ comparison. The solutions may be a better fit for a specific type of organization or focused on certain industries. Additionally, companies can even analyze case studies of key clients.
Product Evaluation
Most certainly, the product evaluation of vendors is critical. This consideration is a key factor in choosing both the products and vendors. In the product assessment process, technical quality, product structure, and integrity are evaluated. The solution might have different service availability and scalability. Companies should compare key availability metrics and the difficulty of scaling the service. Also, configuration and maintenance should be compared regarding the duration and resources required. While comparing product structure and integrity, keep in mind that the solution can vary as a single product, a single product with minor integrations, or a combination of third-party solutions.
Organizational Compatibility
The most important aspect of cybersecurity comparison would be organizational compatibility. After all, the chosen solution of a vendor needs to meet a company’s certain needs. On this matter, companies should compare organizational use-case, integrations, maturity levels, competence, and resources. How well a solution fits unique organizational usages matters greatly. Because it can require additional resources and competence, and that’s why the integration into existing networks may be complex.
Functionality and Benefits
The functionality offered by solutions should be analyzed and compared thoroughly as solutions have numerous components. Cloud gateways, endpoints, network filtering, and administration of solutions also include various aspects themselves. For example, the administration can implement reporting module, a self-service portal, separate access cloud gateways, network segmentation, and so on.
Endpoints should be compared in regards to multilayer authentication, encryption, protocols in place, device security, and DNS filtering especially. Custom DNS, nDPI, and threat blocks are essential for network filtering. Last but not least for cloud gateways, companies should look at multi-site connections, cloud LAN, and multiprotocol support. When comparing different vendors and products, implementation status should be analyzed – fully implemented, in development, or not implemented at all. The security of the solution’s functions also should be checked.
On top of these, the solutions’ functions and vendors bring benefits as well. Benefits usually consist of the difficulty level of setups, scaling, and skills required. Organizations can also check which benefits are gained from the solutions and vendors. You can compare the same type of benefits that cybersecurity vendors provide by simply ranking in respect to each other, e.g best in the market or worst.
Credibility and Pricing
Pricing is also a vital aspect for comparing different cybersecurity vendors as it is with every evaluation of services. The budget companies are willing to put aside for cybersecurity needs will depend on the size of the corporation. So, not every company will spend the same amount for securing their network. Additionally, companies should discuss the additional fees along with the core pricing when comparing different cybersecurity vendors. The credibility of cybersecurity vendors is just as important as everything else. Your organization should meet the required standards and policies that cybersecurity vendors are committed to.
Risk Assessment
The benefits of cybersecurity vendors and solutions are cool and all, but a vendor risk assessment should be conducted when comparing and choosing mentioned vendors. A vendor risk assessment simply consists of identifying the potential challenges by categorizing and listing, and then evaluating. Common ones would be security risks, financial, operational, replacement, and reputational risks. After listing all the challenges, corporations should classify them according to possibility, effect, and other unique factors. A risk assessment will make your job easier to compare different cybersecurity vendors and pick one.
Final Remarks
There are many available cybersecurity vendors with different solutions. Picking the right one according to your corporation’s needs can be burdensome. But with different sets of considerations and a vendor risk assessment, your job will be much easier.
