What is our primary use case?
As a reseller I have not used it in my own organization. We have SMB customers in retail and manufacturing, mostly with Microsoft-oriented IT landscapes, but also a few large financials and some (semi-)governmental organizations, all with complex hybrid IT landscapes. Cynet adapts easily to these different scenarios, and this is valid for the XDR software platform as well as for the included CyOps 24/7 SOC service.
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable aspect is the complete coverage as well as automation of protection and response, including its complimentary 24/7 SOC service, CyOps. A well-balanced combination of people, processes and technology. It is very, very hard to go undetected in a Cynet-protected landscape if your intentions are not good.
It's a holistic product and the only one that is, normally, offered with very good SOC services. Other products may be good in some aspects, but so far I have seen no match for the combination of completeness, visibility, and low operational load on the shoulders of your IT and security teams.
Cynet is unique in that it has almost everything included and it was built up from the ground, instead of a bundle of purchased and composed modules. It gives you very good visibility, is easier than other top-level XDR platforms, as well as a lower management effort. Maintenance is done automatically on a daily basis, including monitoring the customer's environment. That's an incredibly valuable proposition since that means that customers can focus on their business, also if they have small teams. Customers have to look into their Cynet logs to see how many attacks were neutralized, and how bad they could have been. Cynet's doing it all the time instead.
Another aspect of being holistic is that Cynet is releasing great new modules in the near future that will prove themselves very valuable. They will all be designed as part of the whole architecture and deliver seamless functionality.
The initial setup is easy and Cynet always stands by to complement the customer's team skill sets.
It's stable.
The pricing is reasonable, one may even call it very competitive.
What needs improvement?
Cynet 360 Auto XDR is quite complete, but there is always room for improvement.
SIEM - Although their Centralized Log Management Cynet has created the basis for SIEM functionality, this is to be expanded in the near future.
SOAR - Cynet is calling its product Auto XDR since it is a completely automated platform with out-of-the-box many response playbooks, complemented by their CyOps SOC service. Nevertheless, the idea is to enhance functionality here in order to allow customers even more freedom to define their own playbooks.
Mobile - Cynet is fantastic, but it is not yet available for mobile devices. Up till now, I have not had questions about it from customers, but Cynet is working on mobile as well.
SSPM - Cynet have included the first version of their SaaS security posture management module, and the functionality will be expanded. Companies use many cloud platforms but cannot have the skills available to create the right security settings for all of these. With SSPM, Cynet takes care of that for you - automated.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with the solution for four years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable and reliable. We have not yet come across critical bugs or glitches. It did not crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have not seen any limitations in the total landscapes that can be accommodated. I have customers with 250 endpoints and with over 300.000 endpoints.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is excellent. I have had a bit of trouble in the commercial support as a reseller in a country where we started to sell Cynet. And, I cannot forget that some of the folks in Cynet were just going through a phase of worldwide recognition of inure capabilities of the offering, where some people started getting overworked. At this point in time, Cynet has improved a lot over the last year and now operate very professionally, though keeping their spirit of quality and personal contact.
CyOps - CyOps is the complimentary SOC, and is included in the price per endpoint. CyOps is indeed incredibly good. I continue to be impressed with the knowledge and skill levels and the dedication to their customers security.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I'm a reseller and have not used the product myself, I only can rely on customers' experiences for answering the questions. I am also aware of Sentinel One and Crowd Strike, which are both similar in their striving: deliver complete and good protection against cybercrime.
Cynet was recognized by MITRE, which is one of the leading security framework makers. They were recognized as one of the three best companies in their 2022 MITRE Enginuity test.
A colleague, a former Sentinel One employee, has told me that Sentinel One was a very good product. However, the big disadvantage is, it is purchased and bundled software, which means there is functional overlap as well as blind spots, and the operations and maintenance burden is heavier than with Cynet. With Cynet, the two big advantages are you have less effort to run it and easier great visibility. The daily workload is almost zero, and you have better visibility.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very easy and for may hard to believe. Installation can be done with an endpoint management solution or method that is in-house, or with the built-in solution if you prefer that. Functionally speaking you start with default settings and discover-only mode, and then you gradually refine and if you are comfortable you with on auto-protection mode. We did an install in a company with 500 people, and it was ready in less than one hour it was installed on all endpoints. Then the process starts in detection mode only and in this case we rapidly could switch to protection mode.
What about the implementation team?
I am working at a reseller, so I may be biased. My view is: always work with Cynet and I rate their expertise a 10 out of 10. They designed the architecture (which is something you will keep always using an IT product), they designed the functionality you have and see the environments of all their customers. They will design your future releases. They get all the info of all their customers and for their basis tap into the great Israeli source of security specialists, complemented with top people around the world.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Cynet is very reasonable in terms of pricing. Our customers are really very satisfied with the cost - benefit ratio of Cynet. Some were even astonished.
One funny anecdote: one customer, a very big one, called me when I sent them our quote, and asked, "We expected a lot more. Are you sure you did not make a mistake?"
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
My choice was about which brands I would like to work with and take responsibility to my customers, with whom I mostly have very long relationships.
I ran into practical requirements with a very large Swedish customer, and we could not cover their requirements with the portfolio we were selling by then. We discovered Cynet just by co-incidence and found that it held answers to all our questions at the time.
We quickly engaged with Cynet and also in the partnership process they were easy and fun to do business with.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a reseller.
I would always work Cynet. It is a 100% channel company. They used not to be that way. You could deal directly with Cynet and they don't do it anymore. Therefore, I would recommend buying through a reseller.
My recommendation as well is to always work with technical support from Cynet, don't do it yourself.
There are many service companies that run Cynet and then provide their own people. However, the people that Cynet employs in their security operations center are very good and very competent with their own solution; hard to match.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. There is always room for improvement, however, it's pretty good.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller