Now this is a very subjective term as “Right” to each is quite different. More so, the subject “Information Security” by itself is quite a dynamic and an evolving term. Here, any measure stick with constant attributes may not provide a true insight for the choice of Technology. However, certain parameters of the selection process can be generalized for operational efficiency.

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Based on my experience I would recommend the following for any CISO to help choose the right Technology:

1. Understand Your Line of Business
2. Understand the Organization’s Core Competency
3. Understand Business Drivers
4. Understand How things work within your organization
5. Understand how to get things done within your organization
6. Get a Maturity Self-Assessment done for all domains of Information Security
7. Work closely with Technology and Business Teams to chalk out how you can transform Information Security weakness to business enablers
8. Get a Senior Management Buy In for your Information Security Roadmap
9. Prioritize Tool/Technology procurement and rollout
10. Track your progress and keep Management updated with the progress.

Once you have completed task mentioned in points 1 to 10 you many need to focus over tool and partner selection.
Here the process could be as follows:

1. Choose the technology domain you would want to address
2. Check to see if there exists a Gartner or Forrester report
3. Chalk down your wish list
4. Float your wish list via RFPs to all partners
5. Assess all partner responses against a predefined attribute set as follows:

(Read more:  Database Security Vendor Evaluation Guide)

Once done these steps would help you narrow down your choice. However, for the final decision you would need to make a choice by yourself and here are few questions that you should have clear answers for you to choose the right Technology and Partner:

1. Is the technology completely New or does the technology proposer have a demonstrative model in place?
2. Does the technology Partner have a support system in your geographical region?
3. Can the technology partner offer an Opex model along with Capex?
4. Pull out reference work to understand what can go wrong and how better you can manage technology and project issues.
5. Check to seek if you have in-house capabilities to manage the New Technology.
6. Check if Technology partner presents tool benefits by way of Business outcomes.

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I trust, there is no substitute to experience. However, with sharing through common body of knowledge can make technology selection lucid and succinct.

I strongly recommend every Information Security professional to love their Job first.  Be spiritual – Meditation, Service and Knowledge are profound pillars. This will help one achieve clarity of thought and vision. Without these, no matter how religiously you follow best practices, task accomplishment may be a challenge.

-Sagar Karan, CISO, Fullerton India Credit Company Ltd. tells us How Should a CISO choose the right Anti-Malware Technology