Report:
The Forrester Wave™: Cybersecurity Skills And Training Platforms, Q4 2023
How does Forrester define the Cybersecurity Skills And Training Platforms market in 2023?
Cybersecurity skills and training (CS&T) platforms help organizations reduce their reliance on cybersecurity certifications and accelerate the development of a new generation of security talent. CS&T platforms allow organizations to hire and home-grow individuals for their demonstrable skills, experience, and potential. Organizations use CS&T platforms to better understand the skills, strengths, and gaps of individuals and teams, enabling them to set up development paths to challenge, engage, and retain top talent while demonstrating defensible incident readiness.
Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: Cybersecurity Skills And Training Platforms, Q4 2023 in 2023
- Publication Date: 11-Dec-2023
- Document ID: RES178480
- Summary: In our 21-criterion evaluation of cybersecurity skills and training platform providers, we identified the most significant ones and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps security and risk professionals select the right one for their needs.
- Authors: Jess Burn, Joseph Blankenship, Faith Born, Michael Belden
How did the Cybersecurity Skills And Training Platforms market evolve in 2023?
- CS&T platforms help organizations reduce reliance on cybersecurity certifications and accelerate development of new security talent
- Organizations use CS&T platforms to hire and develop individuals based on demonstrable skills, experience, and potential
- 69 zero-day vulnerabilities disclosed as of November 2023, putting the year on track to outpace the record of 88 in 2021
- Rapid rise of generative AI creating new skills requirements similar to cloud migration challenges in 2020
- Nine providers evaluated across 21 criteria
- Three placement categories: Leaders, Strong Performers, and Contenders
- Evaluation criteria grouped into Current Offering (50%), Strategy (50%), and Market Presence (0%)
- Materials cutoff date: September 15, 2023
What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?
- A productized commercial offering. The offering and all its functionality can be delivered online or as a SaaS application.
- Strong support for enterprise customers. The vendor and its offering supports the development, assessment, and/or verification of individual and team skills with recent and ongoing adoption among enterprise customers.
- Significant interest from Forrester customers. Forrester considers the level of interest and feedback from our end user and tech vendor clients based on our various interactions, including inquiries, advisory, and consulting engagements.
What are the common features of top products in the Cybersecurity Skills And Training Platforms space?
No common features specified.
Scope Exclusions
- Vendors without a productized commercial offering available online or as SaaS
- Vendors lacking strong enterprise customer support and adoption
- Vendors with insufficient interest or feedback from Forrester customers
- Vendors focused exclusively on certification preparation without hands-on skills development
- Vendors offering only security vendor- or tool-specific training without broader platform capabilities
Inclusion Criteria
Vendors must, among other requirements:
- A productized commercial offering that can be delivered online or as a SaaS application
- Strong support for enterprise customers with recent and ongoing adoption
- Significant interest from Forrester customers based on inquiries, advisory, and consulting engagements
Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting
- Individual skills development and assessment — 20%
- Team skills development and assessment — 20%
- Gamification, competition, and recognition — 10%
- Security framework mapping and alignment — 10%
- Learner experience and adoption — 10%
- Curriculum management — 5%
- Reporting and dashboards — 5%
- Talent ecosystem integration — 5%
- Security and risk ecosystem integration — 5%
- Accessibility — 5%
- Product security — 5%
Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting
- Vision — 30%
- Innovation — 20%
- Roadmap — 20%
- Partner ecosystem — 10%
- Pricing flexibility and transparency — 10%
- Community — 10%
FAQs
Q: What does this research cover?
A: This research evaluates nine cybersecurity skills and training platform providers across 21 criteria, assessing their ability to deliver timely hands-on training content, coverage beyond SOC skills, and valuable actionable feedback. The evaluation examines current offerings including individual and team skills development, gamification, security framework alignment, and reporting capabilities, as well as vendor strategies covering vision, innovation, roadmap, partner ecosystem, pricing, and community engagement.
Q: Who should use this research?
A: Security and risk professionals should use this research to select the right cybersecurity skills and training platform for their organization's needs. The report helps buyers evaluate vendors based on their ability to produce timely hands-on training content, provide training beyond security operations center skills, and deliver valuable actionable feedback. Organizations can use the accompanying Excel-based vendor comparison tool to adapt criteria weightings to their specific requirements and compare vendors accordingly.
Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?
A: Vendors must have a productized commercial offering deliverable online or as SaaS, provide strong support for enterprise customers with proven adoption, support the development, assessment, and/or verification of individual and team cybersecurity skills, and demonstrate significant interest from Forrester customers through inquiries, advisory sessions, and consulting engagements.
Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?
A:
- Lack of productized commercial offering available as online or SaaS solution
- Insufficient enterprise customer support or limited adoption among enterprise customers
- Low interest or minimal feedback from Forrester clients
- Focus solely on traditional certification training without hands-on skills development capabilities
- Vendor declined to participate in the evaluation process
- Vendor contributed only partially to the evaluation requirements
Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?
A:
- Produce timely, hands-on training content that keeps pace with the evolving threat and technology landscape with new courses and labs released weekly or biweekly
- Cover more than security operations center (SOC) skills, including GRC, application and API security, DevOps, networking, and foundational cybersecurity training
- Deliver valuable, actionable feedback through reports, dashboards, and metrics at the executive level with detailed recommendations
- Provide defensible incident readiness assessment or assist in building business cases for additional investment
- Integrate with tools like GRC that track risks and associated mitigation efforts
- Support custom post-exercise results with skill, process, or compliance gap analysis
Q: How has the Cybersecurity Skills And Training Platforms market evolved in 2023?
A:
- Record-high zero-day vulnerabilities (69 disclosed as of November 2023, on track to exceed 88 from 2021)
- Rapid rise of generative AI use cases for both attack and defense, creating a skills scramble similar to cloud migration in 2020
- Shift away from costly, exam-driven, quickly dated certification courses toward skills-based, hands-on training
- Growing need for timely training content that keeps pace with evolving threats on weekly or biweekly basis
- Expansion beyond SOC-focused training to include GRC, application and API security, DevOps, and cross-functional security champions
- Demand for actionable feedback that demonstrates incident readiness and assists in building business cases for investment
Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?
A: Strength of Offering (vertical axis) evaluates the current capabilities of each vendor's platform, focusing on features like individual and team skill development, gamification, framework alignment, learner experience, and reporting capabilities. Strength of Strategy (horizontal axis) assesses the vendor's future direction and market approach, including their product vision, innovation investments, roadmap clarity, partner ecosystem development, pricing models, and community engagement efforts.
Reference
- Forrester, The Forrester Wave™: Cybersecurity Skills And Training Platforms, Q4 2023, 11-Dec-2023, ID RES178480
View Leaders
View Vendor Movements
