Who Says Software-Defined Security Is What We Want?

Gartner’s Hype Cycle is always a fun read. For the 2017 version, I’d like to draw your attention to the dot for Software-Defined Security — you can find it sliding down the precipitous slope from the Peak of Inflated Expectations to the Trough of Disillusionment.

It’s easy to trace the rise and fall. Back in 2014, there was no Software-Defined-Security marker, but Gartner’s annual chart of hype, hope and hallucination had an entry for Software-Defined Anything (way over on the far left), where dreams turn into … well, more dreams (at least for a while). The intervening years saw Software-Defined Security charge up that first hill of expectations, crest over and eventually slide down.