Binalyze AIR: Mentioned in the Cloud Investigation and Response Automation (CIRA) category

We are excited to announce that Gartner® has recognized Binalyze AIR by adding it to the newly defined Cloud Investigation and Response Automation (CIRA) market in Gartner Peer Insights™.  

We think this addition not only highlights the growing importance of Investigation and Response Automation but also cements Binalyze AIR as a pioneering force within this evolving category.

Since 2018, Binalyze has been transforming the Investigation and Response Automation space, disrupting traditional digital forensics to make it fit for modern SOC environments and incident response needs. We saw the opportunity to streamline investigations—whether in the cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments—and we acted on it.

What is Cloud Investigation and Response Automation?

The category was first introduced in the 2023 Gartner Emerging Tech Report: Security — Cloud Investigation and Response Automation Offers Transformation Opportunities. More recently it was included in the latest Hype Cycle for Workload and Network Security (Report accessible to Gartner clients only), where Binalyze was named a Sample Vendor.2

Gartner defined CIRA on the Peer Insights page as follows, “Cloud Investigation and Response Automation (CIRA) is a technology that leverages advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and automation to enhance the detection, investigation, and response to security incidents within cloud environments. It provides real-time insights into potential threats, automates the collection and analysis of forensic data, and uses machine learning (ML) algorithms for proactive threat detection. CIRA tools integrate seamlessly with existing Security Operations (SecOps) technologies to improve an organization’s overall security posture.”

Why This Matters for Security Teams

Modern organizations are dealing with increasingly complex infrastructures, where data is spread across a variety of environments, both on-premise and in the cloud. Investigating security incidents in this landscape presents significant challenges, from data sprawl and fragmented toolsets to the pressing need for faster answers to inform the response. Traditional forensic tools were not designed for cybersecurity incident response, where the need for speed and scale is paramount. These tools are often slow, resource-intensive, and struggle to handle the scope of modern security investigations.

Cloud Investigation and Response Automation (CIRA) addresses these challenges by delivering automated, forensic-level insights that streamline investigations across diverse infrastructures. With CIRA, security teams can collect and analyze relevant forensic data to respond to incidents more efficiently, ensuring faster, more accurate investigations and improved security outcomes. In a world of expanding attack surfaces and staff shortages, CIRA provides the speed, visibility and efficiency that teams need to stay ahead of threats.

Key Benefits of Cloud Investigation and Response Automation

Leveraging cloud-native technology, automation, advanced analytics and forensic data, CIRA allows teams to:

• Collect and analyze large amounts of data from multiple sources across the environment to pivot into investigations in minutes
• Quickly gain cross-platform, effective forensic visibility, even across cloud and hybrid environments for more precise root cause analysis
• Ensure efficient, streamlined workflows that reduce investigation time and inform better response, quicker, while delivering answers for confident recovery 
• Gain confidence and uplevel their investigative capabilities with built-in knowledge of artifacts to gather and embedded rules to navigate more seamlessly through investigations
• Collaborate more effectively with unified insights accessible to all those involved in investigating incidents, across the SOC levels
• Free up time for more strategic and proactive activities 

Where does Investigation and Response Automation Fit?

Organizations have invested heavily in detection and prevention technologies, yet the growing sophistication, speed, and volume of cyber threats have made the phrase "it's not if, but when" a stark reality. This landscape demands a shift from relying solely on prevention to embracing a proactive, investigative approach grounded in an "assume breach" mindset. Effective security strategies today must pair strong detection with robust investigative capabilities to mitigate risks swiftly.

Investigation and Response Automation enhances this strategy by complementing detection and monitoring tools. By scaling and automating the collection and analysis of forensic data, security teams can drastically reduce investigation times, reduce the impact and recover faster and more securely from incidents. This combination enables organizations to respond with precision, backed by forensic-level insights, driving better decisions and resilience in the face of cyber threats. Leveraging robust integrations with EDR, SIEM, and XDR, ensures that no time is lost after an alert.

Is it just in the cloud?

The adoption of cloud computing has exploded, driven by the need for scalability, cost efficiency, and innovation. Yet, many organizations find that a hybrid or multi-cloud strategy is more practical or realistic.  With that in mind, while leveraging cloud-native solutions like Cloud Investigation and Response Automation has largely been driven by cloud adoption, the use cases for rapid, scalable and automated collection and analysis of forensic data, extend beyond cloud-only environments.  Integrating Investigation and Response Automation solutions that offer broad coverage across cloud, on-prem and hybrid environments, like Binalyze AIR, ensures SOC and IR teams leverage the full benefits of broad, unified, visibility and streamlined investigations.

How Binalyze AIR Delivers on CIRA

Binalyze AIR has been designed to meet cybersecurity investigation challenges and deliver investigation readiness to Enterprise SOCs, MSSPs and Incident Response Service Providers. As a solution that simplifies and automates the entire investigation process, AIR delivers:

1. Cross-Platform Forensic Visibility: AIR provides unparalleled forensic visibility across cloud, on-prem and hybrid environments, ensuring SOC and incident response teams have complete visibility no matter where the investigation takes them.
2. Rapid Automated Investigations: With AIR, the entire investigation workflow—from evidence collection to analysis—is automated, dramatically reducing the time it takes to start and complete investigations. Teams can remotely initiate forensic collections and have results within minutes, enabling increased decision support and faster decisions when every second counts.
3. Integration with SecOps Tools: AIR seamlessly integrates with existing EDR, XDR, and SIEM platforms, triggering automated forensic data collection and initial analysis as soon as alerts are generated. This minimizes delays and ensures that security teams have the context they need to act quickly.
4. Scalability and Flexibility: Whether you’re dealing with a handful of systems or thousands, Binalyze AIR scales effortlessly, allowing security teams to maintain unified visibility across their entire infrastructure in minutes. The platform’s ability to collect and analyze forensic data across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments position it as a critical tool for today’s dynamic and expanding attack surfaces.
5. Forensic Insights with Context: Leveraging built-in analyzers and compromise assessment capability, DRONE, AIR can rapidly analyze forensic data to detect patterns, anomalies, and IOCs that might be missed with traditional methods.  Findings are displayed in an easy to use, collaborative view, the AIR Investigation Hub, from which to navigate all the case related assets and findings. 

Customer Reviews Now More Visible

As a result of the recent change, our associated customer reviews have been moved from the "Others" category to this newly defined market. This will make it even easier to find and see how customers today are benefiting from Binalyze AIR’s robust investigation and response capabilities. Customer feedback continues to play a vital role in shaping our product, and we look forward to seeing more reviews in this new category that highlight the tangible results and improvements our customers experience.

Conclusion

The formalization of the CIRA category marks an important step in the future of incident response. It validates the work we’ve done at Binalyze and underscores the growing need for scalable, automated investigation solutions designed for expanding digital organizations.

But this is just the beginning. Binalyze AIR will continue to innovate, helping security teams reduce investigation times, improve cyber resilience, and navigate the evolving threat landscape with confidence.

Ready to learn more about how Binalyze AIR can help your organization investigate faster and respond smarter, request a demo today.

Gartner Disclaimer

1 Gartner, Emerging Tech: Security — Cloud Investigation and Response Automation Offers Transformation Opportunities,  Lawrence Pingree, Mark Wah,  5 June 2023

2 Gartner, Hype Cycle for Workload and Network Security, 2024,  Feng Gao, Charlie Winckless, 23 July 2024

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