Despite concerns of a global recession, a new IDC Worldwide Spending Guide forecasts cybersecurity investments will reach $219 billion in 2023, an increase of 12.1%. No doubt, the ongoing rise in cyberattacks and an increase in focus by boards and the C-suite on mitigating risk and building resilience are behind the steadfast commitment to invest in security solutions and services. 

The rise in budgets is good news. But still, everyone is trying to do more with less, so return on investment (ROI) is critical. And the fact that the security market has become difficult to navigate with all the different acronyms (EDR, CDR, NDR, XDR, and TDIR – to name a few!) and overlapping definitions makes it increasingly difficult to find a solution that best meets your needs. How do you cut through the noise and confusion? The key is focus on the use cases you want to address and the vendor’s capabilities to help you achieve success.

Focus on use cases

At ThreatQuotient, we’re strong proponents of taking a use case-driven approach to selecting security technologies. Looking at use cases shifts the discussion from the product or technology being used, and instead focuses on solving a specific problem. A security operations platform like ThreatQ supports a wide range of use cases so it can be used to address your uses cases today and new use cases in the future. It is also relatively straightforward to quantify the economic benefits it delivers as it helps SOC teams work more efficiently.

Based on industry research and our experience working with multiple clients, we developed a whitepaper to demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of the ThreatQ Platform for six of the most common use cases it supports: Spear Phishing, Threat Hunting, Alert Triage, Incident Response, Vulnerability Prioritization and Threat Intelligence Management. We found that annual savings realized ranges from $279,552 to $142,128 depending on the use case and, in each use case, savings is enough to produce a positive ROI and short payback period after factoring in the cost of a ThreatQ license. You can read all the details here.

Prioritize customer success

The other important consideration is customer success. Great customer support is the foundation and includes responsiveness and timeliness, but knowledge transfer is also important to help you get the value you expect. Training should be available in multiple formats and form factors (instructor-led/in-person, instructor-led/virtual and self-service) so your teams can get up and running quickly in a way that works for them. Additionally, follow-on training on more advanced capabilities helps ensure the organization derives increasing value from the investment and staff continues their professional development, working towards credits or certifications.

ThreatQuotient has a long-standing commitment to partner with clients to ensure their success and we continue to add offerings as part of ThreatQ Academy, most recently a new online certification program. Our new online training portal for clients and partners complements our existing virtual and onsite instructor-led training offerings, providing access to modules available in a custom catalog of online self-paced training. This provides a shorter lead time for gaining the most up-to-date information about ThreatQ’s tools in comparison to existing virtual or onsite instructor-led training. Modules available within ThreatQ Academy Online include ThreatQ Security and Intelligence Operations, Threat Platform Administration, and Cyber Threat Intelligence Foundations. Additional modules will be available in the portal as they are developed.

Use cases are vital to helping you focus on solutions that will deliver what you need to optimize your security operations and not get distracted by the latest technology or point security product. We also believe that customer success is critical and a big reason why clients refer to us as a true partner, not simply their vendor. When evaluated in combination, these two factors will help you choose the right platform, combat the challenges you face when protecting your organization from cyberattacks, and demonstrate a strong ROI.