At this time, Forrester is saying the retirement of The Forrester Wave™: Endpoint Safety. This analysis has been printed below a number of names for over a decade, the latest being in 2023, with the aim to overview the options, capabilities, and main distributors who delivered an answer to supply safety of the enterprise endpoints.
What’s driving this retirement?
For many years and thru many phrases like anti-virus, anti-malware, and next-gen anti-virus (NGAV), the safety options working regionally on endpoints have offered the final line of protection for enterprise architectures, stopping malicious actions the place the customers work. Over time, new improvements emerged to assist deal with the challenges of detecting new threats, however there was at all times one thing lacking — what occurs when safety choices don’t acknowledge the brand new risk? Enter endpoint detection and response, a very separate product which watched for actions on the endpoint that, by themselves weren’t malicious, however when chained collectively exploited vulnerabilities inside the methods and gave safety groups a technique to customise the response to those threats and assaults.
When it first got here to market, safety & threat groups ran separate endpoint safety platforms (EPP) and endpoint detection and response (EDR) merchandise, many instances by completely different distributors. This was the usual for some years, however then EDR distributors both built-in their EPP product as the bottom for his or her EDR product or distributors purchased into the areas, reminiscent of Palo Alto Networks’ acquisition of Cyvera after which Secdo or Fortinet buying enSilo. This started the method of making one answer that lined all capabilities.
The end result was a slowdown in EPP innovation. This isn’t to say that distributors weren’t releasing new capabilities and bettering safety, however this was now not the distinction between picket and metal curler coasters; it was now the distinction between a 2.2g flip and a couple of.6g. And EDR didn’t “repair” any issues in EPP; it merely closed a niche in total endpoint protection. These capabilities are complementary, not aggressive.
In 2023, we discovered that on the core of the EPP choices, the variations had been negligible. Sure, some distributors overachieved or had been a step behind others. However just like the curler coaster turns, we had been trying extra at subtleties like further function gaps, aesthetics, and reporting depth.
Over the past two years, we now have not seen exceptional adjustments within the EPP market and whereas some distributors have launched new capabilities that improve their choices and overcome safety challenges for purchasers, evaluating endpoint safety platforms as in the event that they’re not the bottom element of EDR/XDR doesn’t profit Forrester’s clients.
Additional, we now have seen enterprise clients settle for the convergence between EPP and EDR to the purpose the place it now not is smart to separate the product choices or to suggest clients use completely different merchandise for every. In instances the place clients use separate endpoint prevention, they most frequently depend on the included capabilities of Microsoft Defender. Convergence between EPP and EDR is not only a alternative, it’s a necessity for higher consumer expertise, analyst expertise, and total enterprise help.
What does this imply for endpoint safety analysis at Forrester?
Primarily, EPP on desktops, laptops, and servers are a key element to the defensive posture of any enterprise, which is why EDR distributors included these capabilities into their merchandise and carried this into their prolonged detection and response (XDR) choices. Excessive-performance EPP capabilities will must be a core of recent XDR platforms to be a substitute for mix-and-match options suppliers. Our analysis will nonetheless have a look at the challenges of defending the end-user workloads themselves and spotlight the most recent developments and up to date deficits that occur inside the endpoint safety market. Paddy will nonetheless analysis native safety capabilities inside the OS, what are the most recent tendencies inside endpoint safety usually, and looking out on the broader endpoint market that includes cell safety, browser safety, and IoT and OT safety.
In 2024 we printed The Forrester Wave™: Prolonged Detection And Response Platforms, Q2 2024, The Forrester Wave™: Operational Expertise Safety Options, Q2 2024, and The Forrester Wave™: Cellular Menace Protection Options, Q3 2024. In 2025, we launched The IoT Safety Options Panorama, Q2 2025 and The Forrester Wave™: IoT Safety Options, Q3 2025. In 2026, we’ll be concentrating on refreshes to The Operational Expertise Safety Options Panorama and The Forrester Wave™: Operational Expertise Safety Options, and have loads of evaluations for contemporary enterprise endpoints whereas we are saying goodbye to The Forrester Wave™: Endpoint Safety.
If you happen to or your group have questions in regards to the adjustments within the endpoint safety market, please schedule an inquiry or steerage session with us.
