Avoid these 5 pitfalls in your cybersecurity technology PoC

A proof of concept is an important step in the cybersecurity technology purchasing process, letting decision-makers take a new tool or service for a structured test drive in their own environment.

According to experts, a PoC is most useful when a CISO has questions about a technology that the vendor cannot fully address in a sales call.

"This is common when replacing a core control, consolidating vendors, responding to a control gap or testing claims that affect risk, cost or staffing," said Jason Soroko, senior fellow at Sectigo, a certificate authority and services provider.

But not every proof of concept supports sound cybersecurity purchasing decisions. A good PoC project quickly validates whether a product or service functions as it's supposed to for a specific use case. A bad PoC, however, can become a slow-motion pilot that drags on for months, consuming the cybersecurity team's time and attention without producing meaningful results. Other common pitfalls include feature creep, artificial testing conditions, poorly defined success criteria and lackluster documentation.

Common missteps in cybersecurity technology PoCs

While PoCs can fail for any number of reasons, according to experts, most lose traction because of the following common missteps.

1. They take too long

Jeff Pollard, an analyst at Forrester Research, argued that a PoC should take only about 18 hours over two to three days. "A well-designed proof of concept isn't a deployment project," he said.

Whenever a PoC stretches into weeks or months, Pollard added, a lack of discipline is usually the root cause. The cybersecurity team might have become too invested in relationships with vendor personnel, for example, or in the future of the product itself.

"The goal is to answer a specific question: 'Can this technology successfully execute the scenarios that matter to us?'" Pollard said. "If you can't answer that after a couple of days of structured testing, the issue isn't time."

2. They focus on technology features rather than business outcomes

In a cybersecurity PoC, decision-makers often become distracted by a technology's bells and whistles, warned Fernando Montenegro, vice president and practice lead for cybersecurity at The Futurum Group. "Focus on how well it works in your environment," he said.

In other words, CISOs should pass on any new cybersecurity tool or service that fails to improve business outcomes -- no matter how impressive its capabilities.

"The most effective PoC starts with clearly defining the problem you're trying to solve rather than evaluating a list of product features," agreed Shane Barney, CISO at Keeper Security, a privileged access management provider. "Security teams should establish measurable success criteria before testing begins, whether that's reducing credential risk, improving privileged access visibility, simplifying compliance or consolidating multiple security tools."

3. They don't use real-world conditions

Standardized, lightweight and vendor-led demos fail to test how a tool functions in an organization's real-world environment and integrates with its pre-existing technology. With that in mind, experts argued against letting a vendor define the PoC.

"The evaluation should reflect real production conditions, not an isolated lab environment, allowing organizations to assess integration with identity providers, SIEM platforms, cloud infrastructure and existing security workflows," Barney said.

Real IT environments, after all, are often messy and unpredictable. "I generally recommend three to six scenarios that represent common, uncommon and difficult operating conditions," Pollard added.

4. They don't clearly define success criteria

According to Sectigo's Soroko, an unsuccessful PoC often has an overly broad scope, lacks baseline metrics and fails to establish methods for scoring results.

"The clearest warning sign is a PoC that begins before the organization has agreed on the problem, the buyer and the action that follows each possible outcome," he added.

Every scenario should have measurable outcomes attached to it, Pollard agreed. "Before testing begins, the team should know exactly what 'pass' and 'fail' look like. Your workshop should literally map job role, technology, scenario and success criteria together."

5. They don't properly document and review results

Security teams should require PoC documentation, screenshots and proof of scenario completion, Pollard said, with data that reflects the pre-established KPIs.

"Then require the vendor to present the results back to the evaluation team," he added. "Senior security leadership should participate in that review even when technical teams run the day-to-day testing."

What happens after the PoC

While a cybersecurity PoC can represent an important step in the technology purchasing process, the CISO must weigh results in the context of the broader security program, organizational constraints and user experience.

"A solution can check every functional box and still fail in practice if it creates administrative overhead the team can't absorb or introduces friction that causes users to work around it," Barney said.

The ultimate test of a good PoC is what happens once it ends.

"A great PoC is one where the transition from PoC to production is as seamless as possible," The Futurum Group's Montenegro said. "It doesn't mean no effort, but it should mean no surprises in terms of operationalizing the new product or service."

Sean Michael Kerner is an IT consultant, technology enthusiast and tinkerer. He has pulled Token Ring, configured NetWare and been known to compile his own Linux kernel. He consults with industry and media organizations on technology issues.