Welcome to the KuppingerCole Analyst Chat. I'm your host. My name is Matthias Reinwarth, I'm an Advisor and Analyst with KuppingerCole Analysts. My guest today is, and I've looked it up, exactly one year ago, she was my guest to present the thing that we are doing an update on now. I want to welcome Christie Pugh. She oversees digital services here at KuppingerCole Analysts. Hi, Christie.
Hi Matthias, thank you for having me again.
Great to have you and things have changed, things have happened. So we want to talk about a service that KuppingerCole provides and I have no bad feelings. I'm not ashamed of that to present that service because it's free. We want to talk about KC Open Select and what has changed in the meantime. But first of all, what is KC Open Select and what are the motivations behind what changed?
Yeah, definitely. So for those of you who don't know, KC Open Select is a comparison tool. It essentially enables you to discover information about a particular identity and access management and or cybersecurity solution or market, helps you in your research process to make good business decisions based on your requirements. Since our release last February, we've made many feature updates to enhance the user experience. Really, we wanted to put ourselves in the minds of our users to figure out what would help them in comparing solutions and figuring out what solution will best fit their project. We ultimately want you as a user to have a pretty easy experience in identifying what the current market state is of that particular topic, what the direction of that market is, what are the internal questions that you need to ask during this process to understand what your requirements are, both from a technical standpoint and an operational standpoint. We want you to understand the particular use cases that our analysts have identified are important within that topic, and then the capabilities that are necessary for successful deployments, motivations, projects, all around. And then once you have all that information, you can go in, put in your product requirements, you can leverage the intel from the analyst, you can customize it a bit. And then it'll compare a bunch of solutions that we have deemed leaders in that particular industry. Once you have that as a base, we've provided you with questions to ask those vendors, like what do you really need to know, when you decide to reach out. And then an area for additional information. So all of those things have been added, kind of amplified since we last spoken. But the newest releases, feature releases, have provided you more of a granular experience. So now you can create a more customizable search or filter out. what exactly you need for your organization to be successful. And so it'll really help you have more of a unique experience with KC Open Select.
So you really have a tool for creating a shortlist, a qualified and informed shortlist when you look at a specific market, say, I don't know, Privilege Access or IGA, and you know what you want from a technological and from an operational perspective, you will hopefully end up with a proper shortlist to feed into your RFI process, right?
Absolutely, absolutely. And you're the man that knows most about assessing tools and figuring out what's working best for your organization. So it's not meant to be a one-stop-shop tool, but it is supposed to help you informed next steps, make better business decisions, give you direction in where to go.
Right, and you have already added quite a substantial number of market segments to look at, but you are adding quite a bunch this April. So there will be more to come and additional feature updates. So we will talk about CTNA, about CNAPP, about PBAM and Data Governance. So, but to clear this alphabet soup up. So it will be Zero Trust Network Access. It will be Cloud Native Application Protection Platforms and Policy Based Access Management and Data Governance. Why are these topics the next ones? What is to be added? Was there a blind spot or is this a new set of topics that are just gaining traction?
That's a great question. We put a lot of thought into what kind of research we produce and put out for our audience. What we like to do with KC Open Select is understand what's relevant to folks, what questions are being asked. When looking at our research schedule, publication schedule, we noticed a correlation with new Leadership Compasses and Buyer's Compasses that are coming out. These are coming in in correlation with those publication dates so that once you've had an opportunity to read and understand these publications, then you can organize it a bit with KC Open Select and make sense of it and get a little more interactive with those tools or with that content to customize it to your own specific needs. I mean, our analysts are some of the best researchers in the world. And they produce great content, but they can't produce content that's one size fits all for everyone, right? And they'll be the first ones to admit it. It's very difficult to please everyone and not all companies have the same needs or requirements, right? All we can do is give them, you know, best case scenarios or best practices. So what KC Open Select will enable you to do is to take that intel. And... customize it in a way, I know I say customize a lot, and coordinate it in a way that fits your specific requirements. Say I am a smaller startup and I don't necessarily have a lot of employees, my requirements aren't going to be the same for IGA that a large manufacturing company has, right? So, a tool that will fit them might not necessarily be best for me. So how do you identify that?
Exactly, and there are other filters that you've added that look at delivery models, so from the cloud, be it on-premises, be it hybrid, and the industry, and you said already, is it a startup? That is the size of the organization, but also the industry, the market segment that they're dealing with, that can influence also very strongly the product decision, and that is now also taken into account for the decision making, right?
Absolutely. Yeah. So you really do have to align your projects with both technical and business goals and say operationally, functionally, an on-prem solution will work for you for the next few years, but it's in your company's roadmap to be cloud-first within the next five. So those are all things that you need to consider when working or selecting a solution.
Right. One term that KuppingerCole as analysts created and that I'm actually rather proud of and I use it on a daily basis is the concept of the Identity Fabric. And that is becoming increasingly important also in the market. And it's really adopted by many vendors, but also by other consulting companies, et cetera. You've included it now in KC Open Select. So that also shows the commitment to this area as well from KuppingerCole's side?
I am very excited to include Identity Fabrics within KC Open Select. I think this is what I love about KuppingerCole, our thought leadership and really understanding the identity market. You said it best in your Identity Fabrics LC back in 2019. IAM as a whole needs to be reconsidered with people working from home, multiple departments, mortgages and acquisitions. There's just, in this new digital age, there is a necessity for just more tools, more entitlements, just a myriad of things. And that old way of thinking about identity in such a fragmented way is a bit archaic and not really functional going forward. So with Identity Fabrics, it really make sense of what our current state is now. So defining it and helping our users understand it, what it means and how to have a more efficient and secure program within the organization is huge. And so I'm thrilled to include it within KC Open Select to better help folks understand what it is. Because you guys created this out of necessity, out of need. And I think it is going to be a game changer for identity and access management in the years to come.
Right, and talking about game changes, digital services as provided by an analyst company. That changes also the way how we as analysts interact with our users, with our vendors that we deal with, which are all, of course. And the question is, what do you see as an effect, these updates also that you're making to the solution will have on the industry and on the users of KC Open Select?
Well, you're an advisor. You have talked to probably hundreds of companies who are experiencing tool sprawl, right? Just imagine that on a whole industry scale, right? We're just seeing an influx of companies popping up and having options is wonderful. It's great. But sometimes just the load of information that's out there is overwhelming. And so gone are the days of how analyst firms used to interact with people. We need to evolve and keep up with our audience. Just like with identity fabrics, the identity market needs to evolve and keep up with its market. So digital services hopefully will make it a lot easier to find, discover, evaluate, and leverage information in a way that helps people make better business decisions.
You now have really accompanied the development of this tool, KC Open Select. Over the time, you are the mastermind behind these updates that are just happening. Yeah, it's true. But from a personal point of view, what has been the most exciting part in creating such a novel solution?
From a personal part, I feel the process of it all, talking to our end users, the people who use us on a daily basis and understanding what they want and helping them find it. We're here for our users, our audience. KuppingerCole really wants everyone to understand the identity and access management and cybersecurity markets in a way that's gonna make the world safer. And so if you know, a tool or service like KCOS can do that, I think that's beyond exciting. And I get to work with some of the smartest people in our industry. So I'm very blessed.
And when people now decide to do this, where can they find it? It's just on our website, right?
Absolutely, pretty easy to find. It's on our website, main website, on the toolbar at kuppingercole.com/open-select. You can also reach out to me directly if you have any questions about the tool, about getting involved in the tool at cp@kuppingercole.com. And like you said, we're releasing new features later this month and new topics next month. So, join our newsletter and you can get updates. And when we have new topics coming out and stay ahead of the game, you could even suggest topics for us to look into or vendors to analyze a bit more. And remember, it is a free tool. So that's one of the big game changers for us. Like this is something completely accessible to folks. We really want to enable our users to discover and use this information in a way that is easy for them, honestly.
Perfect. So I hope it does not take yet another year before we talk again on this podcast. But really, thank you very much, Christie, for being my guest today, for telling us about the updates on KC Open Select, which is a free tool. So if you want to verify your shortlist, if you want to create a shortlist, if you want to have a look at specific markets, chances are huge that we have already covered that or that it's on the list for the updates for next month. Or you can suggest it. Thank you again, Christie, for being my guest today.
Thanks for having me.
