Gartner defines an endpoint protection platform (EPP) as security software designed to protect managed endpoints — including desktop PCs, laptop PCs, virtual desktops, mobile devices and, in some cases, servers — against known and unknown malicious attacks. EPPs provide capabilities for security teams to investigate and remediate incidents that evade prevention controls. EPP products are delivered as software agents, deployed to endpoints, and connected to centralized security analytics and management consoles. EPPs provide a defensive security control to protect end-user endpoints against known and unknown malware infections and file-less attacks using a combination of security techniques (such as static and behavioral analysis) and attack surface reduction capabilities (such as device control, host firewall management and application control). EPP prevention and protection capabilities are deployed as a part of a defense-in-depth strategy to help reduce the endpoint attack surface and minimize the risk of compromise. EPP detection and response capabilities are used to uncover, investigate and respond to endpoint threats that evade security protection, often as a part of broader threat detection, investigation and response (TDIR) capable products.
Extended detection and response (XDR) delivers security incident detection and automated response capabilities for security infrastructure. XDR integrates threat intelligence and telemetry data from multiple sources with security analytics to provide contextualization and correlation of security alerts. XDR must include native sensors, and can be delivered on-premises or as a SaaS offering. Typically, it is deployed by organizations with smaller security teams.
A hybrid mesh firewall (HMF) is a multideployment mode firewall, including hardware, virtual appliance and cloud-based options, with a unified cloud-based management plane. HMF’s are designed to support hybrid environments and evolving use cases by offering mature continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline integration, native cloud integration, and advanced threat prevention capabilities extending to Internet of Things (IoT) devices and DNS-based attacks. With the adoption of hybrid environments, clients prefer the same firewall vendor with centralized management and visibility of firewall policies across environments to ease administration and reduce operational complexity. As a result, the demand and adoption of cloud firewalls from the same on-premises firewall vendor is growing. Hybrid mesh firewalls support this use case through hardware, virtual and dedicated cloud firewall deployment types, along with cloud-based centralized visibility and management capability.
IT Security refers to products and services that protect digital systems and data from cyber threats and unauthorized access. This category includes markets that focus on network security, identity management, data protection, and cloud security, enabling organizations to reduce risk, ensure compliance, and operate securely in a digital world.
Network-based sandboxing is a proven technique for detecting malware and targeted attacks. Network sandboxes monitor network traffic for suspicious objects and automatically submit them to the sandbox environment, where they are analyzed and assigned malware probability scores and severity ratings. Sandboxing technology has been used for years by malware researchers at security companies and even in some large enterprises that are highly security conscious. Traditionally, using a sandbox has been an intensive effort requiring advanced skills. The malware researcher manually submits a suspicious object into the sandbox and analyzes it before flagging it as malware or not. By adding automated features to sandboxing technology (automatically submitting suspicious objects and automatically generating alerts). (Retired as of Mar-12-2026).
The security threat intelligence products and services market refers to the combination of products and services that deliver knowledge (context, mechanisms, indicators, implications and action-oriented advice), information and data about cybersecurity threats, threat actors and other cybersecurity-related issues. The output of these products and services aims to provide or assist in the curation of information about the identities, motivations, characteristics and methods of threats, commonly referred to as tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs). The intent is to enable better decision making and improve security technology capabilities to reduce the likelihood and impact of a potential compromise. Threat intelligence (TI) products and services support the different stages of a TI process life cycle. In particular, this involves defining the aims and objectives, collecting and processing intelligence originating from various sources, analyzing and disseminating it to different stakeholders within the organization, and regularly providing feedback on the entire process. These products and services support ongoing security investigations and assist in preventing future breaches by prioritizing infrastructure hardening. TI tools and services are most commonly cloud-based products and services, but can also be delivered “as a service.”