Technology Testers, Researchers & Certifiers
There are a lot of vendors out there providing IT services and solutions. When trying to choose a particular product within a particular technology stream from, let's just say 20 plus vendors, can be a bit of a daunting task. Fortunately however, we don't have to always do this, we have expert and none biased help out there from independent organisations.
Gartner is a very popular advisory company, which is a prime example when it comes to researching and advising upon technologies. Gartner does not only measure by what the service or product is able to deliver upon or how well the solution is architected, but Gartner also looks at many other elements and the technology vendor as a whole. Gartner would research the vendor's geographic strategy, innovation, any future plans shared by the vendor, the vendor's current customer base, customer references on the vendor and the list goes on.
There are also independent organisations that provide accreditation and levels of accreditation on certain aspects of a technology product. For example, Virus Bulletin, who analyses of the latest virus threats, provides details on how well a vendor performs against the latest threats such as viruses and spam.
FIPS and Common Criteria are examples of government recognised standards. FIPS 140-2 will test cryptographic modules and Common Criteria will test and evaluate the security assurance provided by vendor technology solutions. Common Criteria is an international standard for computer security certification. For example, many firewall vendors have a subset of their product sets certified by Common Criteria, usually with an Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) at level 4. This provides a level of confidence and assurance that the product is safe and secure and has been tested to a high standard.
Aberdeen Group offer research and analysis of IT companies and products. IT security is just one of a number of areas Aberdeen Group provides their professional research and results on.
AV Comparatives is an independent anti-virus testing company.
Bloor is an independent IT research, analysis and consultancy organisation.
Butler Group is an IT technology solutions research and analyst company providing analysis and advise.
Cascadia Labs provide independent evaluations of technology products. Cascadia Labs are very security focussed.
Common Criteria is an official framework where vendors can build their security technology\functionality to the standard of the framework. The technology can then be tested and evaluated and appropriately assigned a rating known as EAL (Evaluation Assurance Level). In plain English, it will tell you the minimum level of protection a product / technology provides. For example, the are many customers who would only accept firewalls into their networks with a minimum Evaluation Assurance Level of 4, which gives them the confidence the product is safe and secure and has been tested to a high standard.
Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS)140-2 is a US government computer security standard issued by NIST. It is used to accredit cryptographic modules that are implemented within hardware and software products and solutions.
Frost & Sullivan provides research in a number of industries. They report on companies, technologies and various other aspects. They have a professional research team providing customers with a global perspective of the market.
Gartner is a reputable and well known information technology research and advisory company. Gartner are famously known for their Magic Quadrant graph charts, where vendor technology is appropriately placed showing how they compare against one another.
International Data Corporation (IDC) provide intelligence and advisory services on information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology products and services.
ICSA Labs provide independent and vendor neutral 3rd party product assurance for end users and enterprises. They provide testing and certifications by measuring product compliance and performance.
NSS Labs is an independent analysis company of IT security products, functionality and technology.
Osterman Research offer market research on messaging, web 2.0, social media, collaboration, information management and others. Majority of the research comes from gathering information from end users, whom work with the vendor products themselves.
Ovum provide their own research into a number of different areas, and one area in particular is Network Infrastructure.
The Forrester Wave is a researching and testing vendor, for products and services. The company provides tools for end users to be able to easily compare products.
TheInfoPro is an advisory and research company who has a viewpoint on information technology solutions.
The 451 Group is an independent technology research and analyst company.
Virus Bulletin provides independent comparative testing of threat protection and anti-virus products. Virus Bulletin also provide other testing services such as anti-spam technologies.
West Coast Labs provides testing and certification of information security products.