Every organization needs to stress-test security solutions before buying to ensure the perfect fit. While the pilot project is the industry standard, is it always the right tool for the job?
How products are evaluated today
Three reasons traditional pilots fall short
Research by Positive Technologies shows that pilots are often costly, slow, and inefficient.
Cost barrier
$4,000–10,000 per pilot
A traditional pilot requires collaboration between the customer, the integrator, and the vendor. On average, these projects tie up three to five specialists across IT and infosec teams.
Duration
A typical pilot takes 4–6 months
Between installation, configuration, and internal approvals, your team spends roughly 20% of their time on the pilot.
Efficiency
58% of customers consider their pilot a failure because they couldn't validate the product's true capabilities
Clean, sterile test environments cannot mimic the chaos of a real breach. A security tool's actual value is only revealed during real-world attacks.
Test drive: a leaner, faster alternative to the pilot
A modern way to test cybersecurity products that allows you to:
- Save time and resources.
- Witness the product defending against real-world attack simulations.
- Validate specific scenarios with direct, hands-on testing.
Products available for test drive
Is the test drive right for you?
Test drive
Pilot
Resources needed
Resources needed:
One specialist
Resources needed:
Three to five specialists (cross-functional team, including infosec and IT)
Duration
Duration:
7–14 days
Duration:
2–6 months
Best choice when
Best choice when:
- You want to quickly validate product capabilities and test specific features.
- You are unsure how to evaluate the product or validate its capabilities.
- You have limited hardware or cannot allocate a dedicated pilot environment.
- Your infosec team is overloaded but wants to evaluate the product quickly.
- Pilots are stalled due to organizational or technical roadblocks.
Best choice when:
- You need to assess performance, scalability, fault tolerance, and the update process.
- You have specific tasks that require testing integration with your existing infrastructure.
- You have completed a test drive but still have questions outside the standard scenarios.
- The specific product is not yet available in the test drive format.
How the test drive has already helped 100+ organizations
Agricultural company
Product
MaxPatrol SIEM
Task
Verify OT compatibility: the customer required a SIEM system within their ICS perimeter, with SCADA support as the top priority
Solution
- Stage 1. Product presentation and demo
- Stage 3. Product training followed by access to a self-guided test environment
Desired result
The company gathered all necessary insights and purchased the enterprise-grade SIEM, eliminating the need for a full-scale pilot.
Software developer
Product
PT NAD
Task
Validate infrastructure integration: the customer needed to verify integration with existing IT/Infosec infrastructure and simulate attacks to test system response
Solution
- Stage 1. Presentation and demonstration via PT Matrix
- Stage 2. Product demonstration on a test environment
- Stage 3. Product training followed by access to a self-guided test environment
Desired result
The test drive was completed successfully, removing the need for a full-scale pilot.
Utility company
Product
PT NGFW
Task
Evaluate core functionality: the customer needed to validate basic features to ensure the product met specific internal requirements
Solution
- Stage 1. Product presentation and demo
- Stage 2. Product training followed by access to a self-guided test environment
Desired result
The customer was fully satisfied with the results and proceeded without a full-scale pilot.