Why do we need an agony meter?
Network security grows more complex every year with enterprises launching bolder applications with broader reach, facing more threats, adopting new devices, and implementing new security tools to protect them all. Aside from enforcing defense strategies on this tools that include access, identity, compliance and threat prevention, every administrator has to take into account all business requirements specifically in the new normal, allow for rapid changes in the network infrastructure, be able to adapt new technologies and trends seamlessly and efficiently. Simplification of management procedures with minimal number of discrete steps as a complex management console greatly decreases the likelihood of human error and reduce the chances for costly mistakes.
Criteria for Agony Meter
Challenges to measure management efficiency
Measurement to determine the agony score
Leading
vendors
Calculating the Agony Score
We have selected 5 challenges, which represent administrator scenarios from diferent network security disciplinaries (application, internal and cloud network security, posture management etc..) to demonstrate how simple, manageable and easy each vendor’s management unit is to use in daily operation.
Each vendor received a grade based on 6 measurements for security management administration. Each measurement receives its agony “weight”, as shown in this table:
| Factor | Time(Sec) | Left Click | Right Click | Double click | keystrokes | Menus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agony Weight | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1.5 | 0.2 | 25 |
| Calculating the Agony Score | Agony Weight |
|---|---|
| Calculating the Agony Score | 5 |
| Calculating the Agony Score | 2 |
| Calculating the Agony Score | 1 |
| Calculating the Agony Score | 1.5 |
| Calculating the Agony Score | 0.2 |
| Calculating the Agony Score | 25 |
Our Method of Evaluation
All challenges were performed in a lab environment with the same network resource es allocated for each environment. Each platform received the vendor recommended virtual hardware assignment.
All challenges were rehearsed several times to prevent anomalies that might change the overall score. The anomalous results were taken off the average score.
In addition, in case there are different ways to complete a given challenge, the fastest path was chosen for all participating vendors.