GigaOm Key Criteria for Evaluating Security Policy-as-Code Solutionsv3.0

1. Executive Summary

In the ever-evolving landscape of information technology, the ability to effectively manage and enforce security policies has become paramount. Policy-as-code solutions have emerged as a critical tool for organizations seeking to mitigate risk, ensure compliance, and maintain operational best practices. By codifying and automating security policies, these tools enable businesses to keep pace with the rapid rate of change in development and deployment architectures, while freeing up valuable IT resources.

Policy-as-code solutions transform traditional, often neglected, security procedures into machine-readable code, integrating them seamlessly into DevOps toolchains. This approach empowers organizations to proactively enforce security policies throughout the entire software development lifecycle, from development and testing to deployment and production. The benefits are far-reaching, including improved security posture, reduced staff investment in manual policy enforcement, and streamlined compliance auditing.

This technology is particularly relevant for CTOs, CIOs, VPs of engineering, cloud architects, and other technology executives responsible for safeguarding their organization’s digital assets. Additionally, data scientists, engineers, and business leaders seeking to leverage data for strategic advantage can benefit from the insights and automation provided by policy-as-code solutions.

Business Imperative
The business imperative for adopting policy-as-code solutions is clear. In today’s interconnected world, security breaches can have devastating consequences, including financial losses, reputational damage, and regulatory fines. By automating security policy enforcement, organizations can proactively identify and remediate vulnerabilities, reducing the risk of costly incidents.

Furthermore, policy-as-code solutions help organizations achieve and maintain compliance with industry regulations and standards, such as HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS. Compliance not only mitigates legal and financial risks but also strengthens customer trust and brand reputation.

Sector Adoption Score
To help executives and decision-makers assess the potential impact and value to the business of deploying a security policy-as-code solution, this GigaOm Key Criteria report provides a structured assessment of the sector across five factors: benefit, maturity, urgency, impact, and effort. By scoring each factor based on how strongly it compels or deters adoption of a security policy-as-code solution, we provide an overall Sector Adoption Score (Figure 1) of 4 out of 5, with 5 indicating the strongest possible recommendation to adopt. This indicates that a security policy-as-code solution is a credible candidate for deployment and worthy of thoughtful consideration.

The factors contributing to the Sector Adoption Score for security policy as code are explained in more detail in the Sector Brief section that follows.

Figure 1. Sector Adoption Score for Security Policy as Code

This is the third year that GigaOm has reported on the security policy- as-code space in the context of our Key Criteria and Radar reports. This report builds on our previous analysis and considers how the market has evolved over the last year.

This GigaOm Key Criteria report highlights the capabilities (table stakes, key features, and emerging features) and nonfunctional requirements (business criteria) for selecting an effective security policy-as-code solution. The companion GigaOm Radar report identifies vendors and products that excel in those decision criteria. Together, these reports provide an overview of the market, identify leading security policy-as-code offerings, and help decision-makers evaluate these solutions so they can make a more informed investment decision.