The Buyer's Guide to Exposure Assessment Platforms
Table of Contents
The state of exposure management
Core capabilities of an EAP
Measuring the success of your CTEM program
Product evaluation checklist
Product evaluation checklist
Exposure Assessment Platforms (EAPs) must deliver a wide range of capabilities to help you ask questions, answer them, and quickly act on issues — all while integrating with security and IT automation tools to help streamline workflows between IT and security teams. You can use the following checklist to help you evaluate the quality of the technology you’re considering.
| Deployment | Sevco | Other |
|---|---|---|
|
Cloud-native platform optimized for rapid deployment______________________________________________ |
Yes |
|
|
Requires minimal configuration to access exposure data
|
Yes |
|
|
Provides insights within minutes of enabling integrations |
Yes |
| Integrations | Sevco | Other |
|---|---|---|
|
Includes out-of-the-box API integrations with key security and IT tools (e.g., ITSM, SIEM, SOAR, EDR, vulnerability scanners, CNAPP, CMDB, etc.)
|
Yes |
|
|
Ability to add custom integrations |
Yes |
|
|
Supports bi-directional integrations with SIEM, SOAR, ITSM, and ticketing systems for streamlined response workflows |
Yes |
|
|
Maintains continuous data pipelines to prevent stale information and manual refreshes
|
Yes |
|
|
Provides live visibility into asset presence and state
|
Yes |
|
|
Vendor supports fully managed integrations to proactively monitor and maintain compatibility
|
Yes |
|
| Continuous Discovery | Sevco | Other |
|---|---|---|
|
Uses multiple sources to identify all assets, including devices, users, software, and vulnerabilities
|
Yes |
|
|
Provides API ingest and native scanning capabilities (e.g., on-premises, internal, external, OT/IoT and cloud)
|
Yes |
|
|
Builds a real-time asset graph to map relationships between users, devices, applications, and network pathways |
Yes |
|
|
Detects shadow IT, misconfigurations, and missing security controls
|
Yes |
|
|
Continuously updates inventory and exposure assessment with live telemetry and change detection |
Yes |
|
| Risk-based Prioritization | Sevco | Other |
|---|---|---|
|
Contextually prioritizes vulnerabilities based on exploitability and business impact___________________ |
Yes |
|
|
Supports CVSS, EPSS, and CISA KEV scoring frameworks
|
Yes |
|
|
Correlates exposures with multiple threat intelligence sources |
Yes |
|
|
Provides risk scoring to focus efforts on the most critical threats |
Yes |
|
|
Identifies mitigating security controls
|
Yes |
|
| Remediation and Mobilization | Sevco | Other |
|---|---|---|
|
Enables direct integration with IT and security tools for automated remediation workflows_________________________________ |
Yes |
|
|
Provides real-time status tracking on remediation efforts |
Yes |
|
|
Verifies remediation has been completed
|
Yes |
|
|
Tracks SLAs to determine that the number of vulnerabilities and MTTR are decreasing |
Yes |
|
| Vendor Evaluation | Sevco | Other |
|---|---|---|
|
Independent endorsements: awards, customer references, and positive references_______________________ |
Yes |
|
|
Vendor stability: financial health, future direction, and roadmap plans |
Yes |
|
|
Trial evaluation available
|
Yes |
|
|
Trial results report with real data and insights from your environment |
Yes |
|
|
Comprehensive user guides for seamless installation and management support |
Yes |
|
|
Comprehensive support model with SLAs |
Yes |
|
Conclusion
Investing in an EAP enables a strategic shift in how you manage cyber risk. Instead of managing vulnerabilities across siloed tools, an EAP enables a unified, intelligence-driven approach to identifying, prioritizing, and mobilizing response efforts. By embedding proactive risk mitigation into your security operations, you reduce operational friction and strengthen your organization’s cyber resilience.
Selecting the right EAP requires aligning platform capabilities with your organization’s security needs and business operations—ensuring seamless integration, comprehensive visibility, and automation-driven response. As cyber threats grow more complex, an EAP provides the intelligence and agility you need to stay ahead, allowing your security team to focus on what matters most: reducing risk and protecting the business.