What is the Frost Radar (Frost & Sullivan)?

How the Frost Radar works

Frost & Sullivan selects the companies it considers significant in a defined market, assesses each one against a fixed set of criteria, and plots the results. The two axes give the chart its shape.

Each index is scored against five criteria, so a position reflects ten separate assessments rather than one overall verdict. That structure matters when reading a report. Two companies can sit close together on the chart after arriving there by different routes, with one showing stronger commercial momentum and the other stronger technical performance. The written analysis accompanying the chart explains that distinction, which is why the report matters more than the visual alone.

Frost & Sullivan presents the Radar as forward-looking. It is intended to indicate which companies are best placed for future growth rather than simply rank today's largest players. Whether a prediction proves accurate can only be tested later. The useful way to read the chart is as a structured analyst opinion about a company's trajectory.

What the Frost Radar is used for

The same chart serves several audiences with different objectives.

• Technology buyers: Use it to build or sanity-check a shortlist, especially when they are learning an unfamiliar category and want to see which vendors an analyst considers significant.
• Vendors: Use it to understand their competitive standing, identify areas where they are assessed as weaker, and support marketing and analyst-relations work when their position is favorable.
• Investors: Use it as one input when assessing companies and market segments, since the Growth Index speaks in particular to commercial trajectory.

Buyers should pay attention to the context in which they encounter a Radar. A vendor promoting its position is presenting a chart selected because it supports a favorable message. That is legitimate marketing, but it is different from reading the market as a whole. The report itself, including the analyst's reasoning for each position, is the more useful source.

Frost Radar vs Magic Quadrant

Buyers often ask how the Frost Radar relates to Gartner's Magic Quadrant because both plot vendors on two axes and both appear in purchasing discussions. They are separate products from separate analyst firms with different methodologies. Neither is a version of the other.

The axes measure different things. The Frost Radar assesses growth and innovation. The Magic Quadrant assesses ability to execute and completeness of vision. The Magic Quadrant divides its chart into four named quadrants that assign each vendor to a category. The Frost Radar uses position on its axes without that four-box structure.

Coverage differs as well. Each firm defines its own market segments and decides which vendors to include. A company can appear in one evaluation and not the other, or be assessed in a segment one firm recognizes and the other does not.

Positions therefore cannot be compared directly across the two evaluations. A vendor placed favorably in one and absent from the other may simply not have been assessed, or may have been assessed in a differently defined market. Presence and absence have little meaning without knowing what was measured and who was included.

How to read a Frost Radar when choosing a vendor

Analyst evaluations are useful for narrowing a field that you do not know well. They are less useful as a final purchasing decision. A few habits make them more useful:

1. Read the analysis, not only the chart. The commentary explains why a company sits where it does and which parts may apply to your situation. A dot alone tells you very little.
2. Check the market definition. Confirm that the assessed segment is the one in which you are buying. Security categories overlap heavily, and a strong position in an adjacent segment does not establish a strong position in yours.
3. Check who was included. Vendors are selected by the analyst. A company you are considering may be absent because it was not assessed rather than because it was assessed unfavorably.
4. Note the date. A Radar is a snapshot. In fast-moving categories, a position from two years ago may describe a different product from the one offered today.
5. Separate growth from suitability. A high Growth Index says that a company is selling successfully. It says nothing about whether the product fits your environment, team size, or regulatory constraints.
6. Test what matters to you. A proof of concept in your own environment answers questions that no analyst chart can answer and provides evidence based on your requirements.

Sekoia and analyst recognition

Sekoia is a European cybersecurity vendor and has been recognized by Frost & Sullivan in its Radar assessments. That recognition indicates that an independent analyst examined the company and considered it significant enough to include and assess against a defined set of criteria. It is external evidence rather than a self-reported claim.

Recognition does not establish that a platform suits every organization. The questions that decide that are more specific: whether the platform ingests the data sources you already run, whether detection is grounded in current intelligence, whether the pricing model matches how your environment grows, and where your data is processed. Those questions are answered through documentation, a proof of concept, and a structured evaluation.

An analyst position is a reasonable reason to put a vendor on a shortlist. It is a poor reason to end the evaluation there. Treat the Radar as a useful input, then test the claims against your own technical, operational, and regulatory requirements.