The first-ever Gartner ranking for Email Security Platforms included 14 companies in total.
Six cybersecurity vendors were chosen to appear in the “leaders” category for Gartner’s first-ever Magic Quadrant for Email Security Platforms, according to the report published this week.
The research firm ranked Proofpoint, Abnormal Security, Trend Micro, Mimecast, KnowBe4 (via its Egress acquisition) and Check Point in the sought-after “leaders” quadrant.
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Notably, Microsoft was ranked just outside the “leaders” quadrant, with Gartner analysts characterizing the tech giant as one of “challengers” on email security.
Demand for email security remains strong as phishing and social engineering threats continue to pose a massive risk to organizations, often as an initial step leading to a ransomware or data-theft attack.
For the inaugural Magic Quadrant for Email Security Platforms, Gartner said it evaluated companies based upon their ability to execute and the completeness of their vision as of October 2024.
Three vendors — Ironscales, Perception Point and Barracuda — ranked in the “visionaries” quadrant for Email Security Platforms, according to the Gartner report.
For the “challengers” quadrant in email security, two vendors, Microsoft and Darktrace, were selected by Gartner analysts.
In the Gartner report, analysts noted in the “cautions” section that “Microsoft’s innovations generally rely on developments in adjacent security areas, such as XDR and Copilot for Security, instead of the direct development of email security capabilities.”
CRN has reached out to Microsoft for comment.
In the “niche players” quadrant for email security, Gartner analysts included Cisco, Cloudflare and Hornetsecurity.
Gartner listed several mandatory features for email security including scanning for phishing and spam, inspection and quarantining for attachments, analysis and protection for URLs and email data protection capabilities such as data loss prevention and encryption.
