Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Security Awareness: Does it do any good?

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Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Security Awareness: Does it do any good?

The Gartner Magic Quadrant on awareness is a resource that used to be referenced when choosing an awareness platform. It used to be taken into account, but not anymore, because it has proven to be useless.

What is the Gartner Magic Quadrant?

The Gartner Magic Quadrant is a visual tool that evaluates and compares different providers in a specific market. Its purpose is to help companies make informed decisions about which technology providers to choose.

The chart is divided into four quadrants:

  • Leaders: These providers have a strong vision and the ability to execute it successfully. They are the strongest in the market.
  • Visionaries: They have innovative ideas and an advanced vision but may lack the ability to execute their vision consistently.
  • Niche Players: They specialize in a specific area of the market and offer highly focused solutions but do not have a broad vision or a strong execution capability.
  • Challengers: These providers are strong in execution but may lack a long-term vision.

Gartner Magic Quadrant

Is it useful?

Quick answer: 

The last magic quadrant on awareness was published in July 2020. Draw your own conclusions.

Detailed answer:

The magic quadrant represents how technology providers are executing their ideas and how well they are performing according to Gartner’s market vision.

It turns out that this vision is irrelevant when it comes to choosing an awareness platform. Why? Because it is based on the strength of the manufacturer, but not on the value perceived by the end customer. 

For example, one of the most important elements in awareness is content. For Gartner, it is impossible to represent in their quadrant how suitable the contents of a platform are for each client.

Being aware of this, Gartner stopped publishing the magic quadrant for this market, and instead created the Market Guide. This guide did not receive the expected reception and was also eventually dismissed.

What should I base my choice of an awareness platform on?

Currently, there is no Gartner document that directly helps in making this decision.

In awareness, there are many factors to consider, and the ideal platform for one organization may be the worst decision for another.

Therefore, the best thing you can do is to have a clear understanding of your objectives first. What do you want an awareness platform for?

  • To manage social engineering
  • To create and maintain a safe culture
  • To comply with internal and external regulations

According to your objectives, make sure you have a platform that helps you achieve them in the simplest and most effective way possible. 

For that, we recommend reading our post: What is the best awareness platform?

Nicolás Bruna

Product Manager de SMARTFENSE. Su misión en la empresa es mejorar la plataforma día a día y evangelizar sobre la importancia de la concientización. Ha escrito dos whitepapers y más de 150 artículos sobre gestión del riesgo de la ingeniería social, creación de culturas seguras y cumplimiento de normativas. También es uno de los autores de la Guía de Ransomware de OWASP y el Calculador de costos de Ransomware, entre otros recursos gratuitos.

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