What are you looking for when buying data security solutions for IT?

When we are looking at choosing a security solution today, there's so many overlapping functionalities that we need to be aware of. So, when we are looking for, let's say, a DLP solution. You look at the options like ForcePoint, which has DLP, CASB, insider threat. Wow! But then McAfee has DLP and CASB. Netskope on the other hand has CASB. All are great products and solutions, but gets confusing from a buyer's perspective. So, when I choose a security solution my biggest ask would be to have one platform end-end, so that we can scale as we implement a consistent global security posture across all users with full visibility and control. Cost is definitely the next biggest factor, especially with IT reporting into CFO, we have to dial for dollars. The third would be whether or not they are really delivering what they say they do. We go through a detailed analysis to understand the offering. We take requirements from the core members of our team and go through a point system to evaluate the winner after some customer advocacy checks. Finally, a solution that can get our feet wet as quickly as possible because we really don't want long deployment times.

Besides the fact that the solution has to actually be useful and do what it says it does, I think the bigger issues for me are how can I integrate the solution and leverage it into my existing environment. Also, what's the level of effort to implement it? I've come across a lot of really fantastic tools out there, but they require an entire team of people to manage them. At the phase we're at, we're just not there. We're looking at what we already have, how we can integrate with that, and the level of simplicity (How much overhead does it take to manage it?). For us, it is about how quickly we can get it up and running in our environment and how much we can leverage our existing investments.