How Long Is a Piece of String?

Kevin Mayer | September 4, 2018
It is only natural for us to want to compartmentalize the vast amount of information we process daily into neat, separate bucket—to categorize things in the world into classes. To define by question and answer. However, every now and then we ask a question which doesn’t necessarily make sense in the context of what we are asking about, “how long is a piece of string?”
In a business, CISOs must continually evaluate and categorize security products and with vendors like Forescout, they are able to see how long that piece of string really is.
But, of course, when it comes to visibility people have questions. How many devices does your product see? How does your product see devices? And our perennial favorite: how many devices does your product classify? It is easier to evaluate a product when you have these answers, easier to put into a ‘bucket,’ compare apples to apples, and easier to make an informed decision as to which product to purchase. As the product manager responsible for the device classification capabilities at Forescout, this my “how long is a piece of string?” question.
Any security product which claims to offer device visibility needs to be able to classify devices on the network. Anyone looking at such security products must know what the product does in this respect. So why won’t the question “how many devices does your product classify?” help you compare apples with apples?
Because it doesn’t ask the right question. Is the question being asked in absolute terms, “out of the 20 billion connected devices on the planet, how many of them can your product assign a classification value to?” Or is it being asked in practical terms, “how many different types of devices does your product classify?” The real question that needs to be asked is “how many unique classification values are possible with your product?”
When purchasing a security solution, ask yourself these four questions:
When comparing products, make sure to ask the following:
While it is important to use generic numbers for comparison, dig deeper to make sure the product solves the problems you face.
At Forescout, we push our teams to focus on what matters, and not just what looks good on paper. We classify devices into combinations of:
Based on data uploaded to the Forescout Device Cloud, as of July 2018, out of the box, Forescout has successfully classified more than 4 million devices into over 10,000 different device types. We are continuously improving every month, making sure our technology is not limited to classifying known devices, but also those that are yet to be created.
So go on, put Forescout in a bucket—categorize us. We know it’s necessary when making a serious investment in security. Just make sure that you consider the right factors when doing that categorization.
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