As companies scale, it’s important (and often a requirement) to have checks and balances in place to protect the organization from risk, secure confidential information, and prevent data breaches.
Behind IT Infrastructure, security software is the second SaaS category businesses invest the most in, making up 11.75% of the total software budget. While companies need software to run their business (i.e. IT Infrastructure), they also need tools to protect their business as they run (i.e. Security). It’s crucial to structure your security tech stack for long-term success and spend wisely as you look to safeguard your business from threats and set the organization up to scale.
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In this space, there is not one vendor that will do it all. It can be overwhelming to know which security supplier to use for any given purpose. By the time most companies realize they need Access Management or Data Privacy, it's already urgent and they have little to no time to do a thorough evaluation.
Assessing the usage and licensing needs and consolidating where possible will allow you to be the most efficient and proactive with your tech stack.
Let’s dive into some of the major trends we’ve seen from helping our customers navigate their security software decisions and negotiations.
Security Trends
If you play your cards right, purchasing security software can become a buyer's market.
While some top suppliers continue to dominate various categories within the security landscape, there are many emerging suppliers making a name for themselves who stand to disrupt the current market. This influx of new players has brought about a few major changes in security tech stack trends.
Trend 1: Using Competitive Leverage
As the security software space has become increasingly saturated in recent years, we’ve seen forward-thinking buyers sizing the opportunity to use competition to their advantage.
Early engagement is key. If timing permits, get ahead of your security renewals and start conversations with internal and external stakeholders at least three months before your opt-out date. If you don’t have a tool that gives you automatic renewal notifications, check your contracts for those dates and set reminders for yourself.
This lead time allows you to secure a proposal from at least one competitor, which helps significantly during negotiations. Even if you don’t find it necessary to move to a new supplier, having that pricing in your back pocket and dangling it during renewal negotiations will arm you with greater leverage to secure a more favorable price.
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Trend 2: Consolidating the Security Tech Stack
Security suppliers have been pushing to expand their offerings. Our top customers are always checking to see if current or rival suppliers have a product, feature, or package that could replace something else in the tech stack.
Many companies don’t realize that one product in their tier can suffice the functionality (and cost) of two other tools. With the security space evolving so quickly, there is a good chance there are new offerings out there that were not around a year ago, which could help you consolidate your tech stack and improve efficiency.
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Trend 3: Understanding Supplier Pricing
With many different suppliers comes many different pricing models. Even two direct competitors may have two different ways they approach it. Pricing may be based on modules, devices, users, MAUs, employee headcount, etc.
It’s crucial to understand how a contract is priced and what you are getting charged for as you head into negotiations. This will help ensure you are right-sized and allow you to make adjustments if not.
Every time I enter a renewal conversation, I confirm whether there are higher or lower tiers available for usage and support than the current contract because needs may have changed in the last year or two.
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Most Popular Security Tools in 2024
Here's a look at some of the most popular Security software companies are currently using. Access our Q1 2024 SaaS Category Benchmarks Report to get the full report and see how companies are structuring their tech stack across different company sizes.
As mentioned above, many solutions serve the security space as there is not one vendor that does it all. Here are some insights into a few dominant tools that consistently make up a company’s modern security tech stack:
Okta
Okta is a leader in Access Management and expanded this past year by acquiring Auth0. For organizations with an Okta and Auth0 contract, Okta will not yield a volume concession to consolidate agreements. Still, it's important to lean into the overall spend with Okta during negotiations with either your Okta or Auth0 SaaS.
Vanta
Vanta automates the process for SOC 2, HIPAA, IOS, PCI, and GDPR compliance certifications. Vanta has quite a few new offerings with new custom plans that directly compete with suppliers such as Whistic, Drata, SecureFrame, and many more. Vanta was founded in 2018 but is one of the more common suppliers we come across in the space.
Jamf
Jamf is a leader in Device Management, although it’s worth noting that the space is not overly congested. They are quite a black-and-white supplier given the space they are in and what we see is when a company sets up a Device Management system, they stick with it for years. Recently, Kandji has come head to head with Jamf more frequently, making a name for themselves in the Device Management space.
PagerDuty
PagerDuty is a common tool for incident management that is typically needed as a company starts to scale. PagerDuty is a relatively sticky solution so it is important to lock in strong rates upfront to set the partnership up for success. In most cases, unless you are significantly increasing volume, you will not be seeing rates lower than what the contract initially started at.
Optimize your tech stack with maximum leverage
Tropic not only gives companies visibility and control over all contracts, but we also help modern teams make data-driven decisions around their tech stack with comprehensive market intelligence and supplier-specialized negotiation insights. Get started with a demo today.
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