The Gartner Magic Quadrant is a market research report that divides technology providers into four categories: Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries, and Niche Players. This report helps IT leaders compare different vendors according to their core values. 

As of 2024, Gartner publishes a Market Guide for MDR services, but it does not have a dedicated Magic Quadrant for MDR. The Market Guide provides fundamental insights for security leaders planning on partnering with MDR vendors, but it isn’t driven by the same level of analysis as Magic Quadrant. 

How does Gartner prepare its Magic Quadrant report? 

Gartner conducts research into vendors as part of its consulting business. The company’s analysis is backed by a highly structured methodology designed to help executive decision-makers make the best choices. 

The Magic Quadrant is the result of Gartner’s qualitative market analysis process. Conducting this analysis means following these steps: 

1. Identifying the market

Gartner only publishes reports on markets it feels are distinct and viable. It pays close attention to emerging technology trends and changing market dynamics. If there is not sufficient demand for technology solutions in a particular market, it may choose not to research or publish information on it. 

Gartner looks for markets where it can help clients plan and strategize technology implementations to meet business goals. The MDR market is worth an estimated $4.1 billion as of 2024, and experts project it will reach nearly $12 billion by 2029, at a compound annual growth rate of 23.5%. However, Gartner does not yet publish a Magic Quadrant report for the MDR market. 

2. Selecting vendors 

Magic Quadrant is not a comprehensive report on every vendor in the market. It is a focused analysis on a select number of entrants. That means Gartner must choose between market participants to find the companies it will commit resources to analyzing. 

Gartner does not share its selection criteria publicly. It does say that these criteria may include “market share, number of clients, installed base, types of products/services, target market or other defining characteristics.” Gartner uses these criteria to narrow its scope and select vendors it believes are best-suited to meet its clients’ needs. 

Sometimes, Gartner includes additional vendors in its research outside the Magic Quadrant format. These “honorable mentions” are included for their ability to meet specific business needs, but are not included in the comparative evaluation. 

3. Defining rating criteria 

The Magic Quadrant is a graph, with vendors plotted according to their performance in two categories: 

• Completeness of vision; 

• Ability to execute. 

These categories each contain individual rating criteria, which can change depending on the market in question. There are standard criteria common to all Magic Quadrants, but they are typically refined to meet market-specific client needs. This is done by adding subcriteria that are unique to the market itself. 

Gartner analysts define these criteria and then rank them in terms of importance for the market under analysis. Criteria that do not have strong relevance for the market may receive no rating weight at all. This process is continuously refined with each new Magic Quadrant publication Gartner releases. 

4. Researching the market 

Gartner also performs market research alongside its analysis. Some research activities that Gartner analysts may include in their process include: 

• Attending product demonstrations and vendor briefings 

• Conducting their own surveys 

• Interviewing customers on their clients’ behalf 

• Interviewing industry leaders and contacts 

• Consulting public resources, like earnings reports and published articles 

• Consulting with other Gartner analysts 

• Reviewing social media contributions and interactions, including Gartner Peer Insights. 

These activities provide a broader context for conducting vendor evaluations. Without clear visibility into the market under analysis, Gartner would not be able to provide meaningful insight to its clients.  

5. Evaluating vendors and publishing 

When all the research is complete, Gartner assigns teams of analysts to evaluate vendors against the weighted criteria. This process results in each vendor being assigned a Magic Quadrant score. 

The report itself is an interactive tool published on Gartner’s website. It also offers subscribers a PDF and static HTML version. The report typically includes explanations for Gartner’s position, as well as notable developments in the market under analysis. 

How does Gartner evaluate and rank vendors? 

Once Gartner has selected a group of vendors to research, it groups their activities into two categories. These categories form the foundation of the firm’s analysis, determining how it compares a disparate set of products and services. 

1. Completeness of vision 

This factor refers to the vendor’s ability to understand its customers needs and contextualize them against market trends. When a company has a complete vision, it readily anticipates customer needs and delivers solutions to meet them.  

This is something that differentiates leaders from followers in a competitive market. Gartner assesses its vendors’ completeness of vision using the following sub-criteria: 

• Market understanding. The best vendors are those who fully understand their customers’ needs. Vendors who demonstrate this understanding are more likely to develop efficient, successful solutions for customer problems. 

• Marketing strategy. The clarity and consistency of a vendor’s marketing messaging can be a powerful value differentiator for end users. Gartner analyzes vendors for signs of a mature, well-established approach to marketing their products and services. 

• Sales strategy. Vendors may differ in their sales strategies, using different networks for direct and indirect sales with varying levels of success. This reflects the breadth of the vendor’s market reach. 

• Product strategy. When vendors emphasize differentiation, functions, and useful feature sets in response to customer needs, they show excellent product strategy positioning. 

• Business model. Gartner looks closely at the logic underlying vendors’ core value proposition. It also looks at the overall structure the company uses to demonstrate that value. 

• Industry strategy. This criterion looks for information into how the vendor plans on growing within its industry, and how it expects to maintain that growth. 

• Innovation. Vendors must innovate to maintain a competitive advantage. This requires allocating resources and investing them wisely according to long-term business needs. 

• Geographic strategy. Vendor performance in geographic regions outside its native area can provide important insights into how well it understands its customers outside that specific context. 

2. Ability to execute 

This factor focuses more on operational vendor performance than high-level strategy. When assessing vendors’ execution ability, Gartner primarily looks for evidence that the company can deliver on its promises.  

Organizations with strong execution capabilities can provide value independent of the completeness of their vision. Gartner evaluates this value according to the following subcriteria: 

• Products and services. The solutions that vendors provide customers often vary in quality, consistency, and capability. This criterion assesses the value of each vendor’s actual offering according to the market’s expectations. 

• Overall viability. This is where Gartner assesses the company’s overall financial health. Vendors with funding deficiencies, large debts, or other issues may not be able to successfully execute their long-term plans. 

• Pricing and sales execution. The quality and consistency of presales and sales activities can directly impact a vendor’s reputation. Good deal management and reasonable pricing structures are core elements of a vendor’s ability to execute. 

• Market responsiveness. Since market trends are constantly changing, vendors must be prepared to pivot according to new customer demands. Responsive vendors are more likely to meet those demands in a timely manner. 

• Marketing execution. Marketing messages only reach their intended audience when marketing programs are executed successfully. This criterion examines the consistency and professionalism of vendors’ marketing initiatives. 

• Customer experience. The customer experience can be a powerful value differentiator. Gartner analyzes the quality of customer support programs, service-level agreements, and overall customer communication when evaluating vendors. 

• Operational capability. This criterion reflects the organization’s ability to meet its commitments. It reflects the organization’s structure, processes, and overall sense of internal efficiency. 

Critical Capabilities: Beyond the Magic Quadrant 

The Magic Quadrant isn’t a standalone item. It is accompanied by a supplementary report called Critical Capabilities. This companion report looks deeper at the individual product and service offerings of individual vendors. Instead of giving a broad, market-based viewpoint, it leads with a narrow perspective into vendors’ core values. 

 If Gartner were to publish a Magic Quadrant and Critical Capabilities report for the MDR market, it might include analysis into how cybersecurity consolidation impacts customers in specific use cases. It could highlight the value of leveraging custom detection rules to reduce false positives, or recommend specific technology expertise to clients.