The Gartner Phenomenon

It's not unusual for larger enterprises to use Gartner's opinions on IT products to help influence their purchasing decision. In the proxy world, Gartner publishes a Magic Quadrant for Secure Web Gateway, which covers web security devices, of which most are proxies.

For those unfamiliar with the Magic Quadrant, the idea is that each product/company gets put into one of four corners; "leaders", "challengers", "visionaries", and "niche players". In general most companies look to try to get into the "leaders" quadrant, and as far to the right and as far up as possible.

Typically if a company is in the "leaders" quadrant, that means they not only have significant market share, but they are also driving product direction and have a completeness of vision. If a company is in the "challengers" quadrant, they have market share, but typically it appears they don't have as much vision in driving new features in the product category. In the "visionaries" quadrant, the company tends not to have the market share, but has the vision and understanding of the product category. "Niche players" is the category for companies that don't have an overall market share or vision, and may play only in one small part of the market.

Companies change positions in the Magic Quadrant from year to year, so it's always interesting to see if they've gained market share and if they've somehow improved their vision. While the Magic Quadrant can help you make a decision on a product, it always pays to also make your own evaluation when choosing a product or solution.