Gartner® does not create new classes flippantly. Usually talking, a brand new acronym solely emerges when the business’s collective “to-do checklist” has grow to be mathematically unattainable to finish. And so plainly the introduction of the Publicity Evaluation Platforms (EAP) class is a proper admission that conventional Vulnerability Administration (VM) is not a viable approach to safe a contemporary enterprise.
The shift from the normal Market Information for Vulnerability Evaluation to the brand new Magic Quadrant for EAPs represents a transfer away from the “vulnerability hose”, i.e., the infinite stream of CVEs, and towards a mannequin of Steady Menace Publicity Administration (CTEM). To us, that is greater than only a change in terminology; it’s an try to unravel the “Useless Finish” paradox that has plagued safety groups for a decade.
Within the inaugural Magic Quadrant report of this class, Gartner evaluated 20 distributors for his or her capacity to help steady discovery, risk-informed prioritization, and built-in visibility throughout cloud, on-prem, and identification layers. On this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the important thing findings of the report, the drivers behind the brand new class, the options that outline it, and what we see because the takeaways for safety groups.
Why Publicity Evaluation Is Gaining Floor
Safety instruments have at all times promised danger discount, however they’ve principally delivered noise. One product would reveal a misconfiguration. One other would log a privilege drift. A 3rd would flag susceptible external-facing belongings. The result’s a disaster of quantity that has led to continual alert fatigue within the SOC. Every software offered a bit of the puzzle, but none had been in a position to put all of the items collectively and clarify how publicity kinds…or what to repair first to keep away from it.
The skepticism towards legacy VM instruments is well-earned. Knowledge from over 15,000 environments reveals that 74% of recognized exposures are “lifeless ends”, present on belongings that don’t have any viable path to a vital system. Within the outdated mannequin, a safety group would possibly spend 90% of its remediation effort fixing these lifeless ends, yielding successfully zero discount in danger to enterprise processes.
That is what EAPs are designed to handle. They pull all these items right into a unified view that tracks how methods, identities, and vulnerabilities work together in actual environments and present how an attacker might really use it to maneuver from a low-risk dev atmosphere to vital belongings.
This mannequin is gaining traction as a result of it displays how attackers function. Menace actors do not restrict themselves to a single flaw. They’ve weak controls, misaligned privileges, and blind spots in detection. The EAP mannequin tracks how exposures accumulate throughout environments and lead attackers to reachable belongings. Platforms on this class are constructed to point out the place danger originates, the way it spreads, and which situations help attacker motion.
Gartner tasks that organizations utilizing this strategy will cut back unplanned downtime by 30% by 2027. That form of dramatic end result relies on an equally dramatic change in how publicity is outlined, modeled, and operationalized throughout environments. The shift touches each layer of the safety workflow – from how indicators are linked to how groups resolve what to repair first.
Drill Down: From Static Lists to Publicity in Movement
That shift in workflow begins with how EAPs detect and join the situations that result in danger. Publicity evaluation platforms take a unique strategy than conventional vulnerability instruments. They’re constructed round a definite set of capabilities:
They consolidate discovery throughout environments. EAPs repeatedly scan inside networks, cloud workloads, and user-facing methods to establish each identified and untracked belongings, alongside unmanaged identities, misconfigured roles, and legacy methods that will not seem in customary inventories.
They prioritize primarily based on context, not simply severity. Publicity is ranked utilizing a number of parameters – asset significance, entry paths, exploitability, and management protection. This permits groups to see which points are reachable, that are remoted, and which allow lateral motion.
They combine publicity knowledge into operational workflows. EAP output is designed to help motion. Platforms join with IT and safety instruments so findings could be assigned, tracked, and resolved by means of present methods – with out ready for a quarterly audit or handbook evaluate.
They help lifecycle monitoring. As soon as exposures are recognized, EAPs monitor them throughout remediation steps, configuration modifications, and coverage updates. That visibility helps groups perceive what’s been mounted, what stays, and the way every adjustment impacts danger posture.
What the Quadrant Reveals About Market Maturity
The brand new Magic Quadrant highlights a cut up out there. On one aspect, you might have legacy incumbents trying to “bolt on” publicity options to their present scanning engines. On the opposite, you might have native Publicity Administration gamers who’ve been modeling attacker habits for years.
The maturity of the class is evidenced by a shift within the “definition of accomplished.” Success is not measured by what number of vulnerabilities had been patched, however by what number of vital assault paths had been eradicated. Platforms like XM Cyber, which had been constructed on assault graph-based modeling, are actually main the best way for this strategy.
What Safety Groups Ought to Be Watching
Publicity evaluation now stands as its personal class, with outlined capabilities, analysis standards, and a rising function in enterprise workflows. The platforms within the Magic Quadrant are figuring out linked exposures, mapping which belongings could be reached, and guiding remediation primarily based on attacker motion.
For the practitioner, the rapid worth is effectivity. These platforms are making choices about what to repair first, assign possession, and the place danger discount may have essentially the most influence. Publicity evaluation is now positioned as a core layer in how environments are secured, maintained, and understood. If you happen to can mathematically show that 74% of your alerts could be safely ignored, you are not simply “bettering safety” – you are returning time and sources to a group that’s possible already at its breaking level. The EAP class is lastly aligning safety metrics with enterprise actuality. The query is not “What number of vulnerabilities do we’ve got?” however “Are we secure from the assault paths that matter?”
To be taught extra about why XM Cyber was named a challenger within the 2025 Magic Quadrant for publicity evaluation platforms, seize your copy of the report right here.
Notice: This text was expertly written and contributed by Maya Malevich, Head of Product Advertising and marketing at XM Cyber.
Gartner Disclaimer: Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Publicity Evaluation Platforms, By Mitchell Schneider, Dhivya Poole, and Jonathan Nunez, November 10, 2025. GARTNER is a registered trademark and repair mark of Gartner, and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its associates within the U.S. and internationally, and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner doesn’t endorse any vendor, product, or service depicted in its analysis publications, and doesn’t advise expertise customers to pick solely these distributors with the very best rankings or different designation. Gartner analysis publications include the opinions of Gartner’s analysis group and shouldn’t be construed as statements of truth. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this analysis, together with any warranties of merchantability or health for a selected goal.
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