Kaspersky Lab has been named a “Leader” in the Gartner 2014 Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms for the third year in a row.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant is an annual market research report based on complex analysis of the endpoint protection platforms of 18 IT security vendors. It can be utilised as a benchmark for companies seeking to evaluate vendors and products in the IT security industry, and can play an important role in the purchase decisions of enterprises on a global scale. Gartner evaluates vendors in two categories: “completeness of vision” and “ability to execute”.

“Completeness of vision” includes 8 evaluation criteria: market understanding, marketing strategy, sales strategy, offering strategy, business model, vertical/industry strategy, innovation and geographic strategy. The “ability to execute” criteria include factors such as the vendor’s overall viability, market responsiveness/record, operations, sales execution/pricing, marketing execution and customer experience.

The Magic Quadrant categorises the included vendors of the research into four groups: “Leaders”, “Challengers”, “Visionaries” and “Niche Players”. “Leaders” demonstrate balanced progress and effort in the execution and vision categories. Their capabilities in advanced malware protection, data protection and/or management features raise the competitive bar for all products on the market, and they are shaping the course of the industry.

Kaspersky Lab was included in this “Leaders” group for the third consecutive year based on these criteria. The company has continued to improve its position on the graph and was positioned second furthest for “completeness of vision” among the other companies in the Leaders portion of the Magic Quadrant.

The company’s flagship security solution – Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business – has been recognised by businesses and IT leaders as a solution that not only delivers rapid and accurate malware detection, but also integrates numerous client management tools into a single management console. Some of these security management functions include vulnerability analysis, patch management, application inventory, application control, MDM, and centrally managed file-level and full-disk encryption, with pre-boot authentication for hard drives and removable devices.

Commenting on the achievement, Nikolay Grebennikov, chief technology officer of Kaspersky Lab, says: “Our ambition is to see a safe and secure cyberspace by providing the ultimate protection to our clients, and we believe our latest position within the Gartner Magic Quadrant shows that we are on the right path. This is a great achievement for us and I think it shows that our long-term strategy of investing heavily in technologies and expertise continues to bring great results. It’s very encouraging to see that our efforts are being acknowledged by the leading IT market researcher.”