IT Harvest’s new Cybersecurity Stack Analysis feature brings AI-powered mapping of cybersecurity products to NIST, MITRE, and CIS frameworks—helping organizations identify coverage gaps and redundancies in seconds.

Mike Brennan of MITechNews recently reconnected with longtime contributor and cybersecurity analyst Richard Stiennon, founder of IT Harvest. Over the past year, their discussions have explored how IT Harvest is reshaping how the industry understands and manages cybersecurity vendors. That story now takes a major step forward with the introduction of Cybersecurity Stack Analysis.

Unveiling its most transformative update yet, IT Harvest introduces Cybersecurity Stack Analysis — a new feature in the IT Harvest Dashboard that allows organizations to instantly map their entire security stack to global frameworks such as NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, MITRE ATT&CK, and CIS Controls.

Building on a foundation of extensive cybersecurity data research, the company now offers practical insight to reduce redundancy, uncover coverage gaps, and strengthen overall defense posture. This release also continues the ongoing collaboration between Stiennon and MITechNews to make sophisticated cybersecurity strategy understandable, practical, and actionable for security leaders at every level.

IT Harvest has unveiled its most transformative update yet: Cybersecurity Stack Analysis, a new feature in the IT Harvest Dashboard that allows organizations to instantly map their entire security stack to global frameworks such as NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, MITRE ATT&CK, and CIS Controls.

This innovation builds on IT Harvest’s foundation of extensive cybersecurity data research, offering practical insight to reduce redundancy, uncover coverage gaps, and strengthen overall defense posture. This release also continues the ongoing collaboration between Stiennon and MITechNews to make sophisticated cybersecurity strategy understandable, practical, and actionable for security leaders at every level.

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The Challenge of Managing Modern Security Stacks

Enterprises today juggle an overwhelming number of security tools. According to Stiennon, research shows the average organization uses 75 to 80 cybersecurity products. In extreme cases, major financial institutions can be running more than 700 separate tools.

That creates a familiar set of problems for CISOs, security architects, and compliance leaders:

  • Overlapping capabilities across vendors
  • Rising licensing and support costs
  • Gaps in coverage that create real exposure
  • Difficulty proving compliance to auditors, regulators, and boards

It is no longer unusual for a large enterprise security team to ask basic but urgent questions like: Are we overspending in some areas? Where are we exposed? Which products should we consolidate or retire?

Historically, getting those answers required outside consultants. As Stiennon explains, global consulting firms and large systems integrators offer multi-month “stack assessments,” where they analyze all the cybersecurity products a company owns, map them to an accepted cybersecurity framework, and deliver recommendations. Those projects often cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and consume a significant amount of internal team time.

Cybersecurity Stack Analysis from IT Harvest is designed to deliver that same strategic visibility in minutes instead of months.

 

Inside Cybersecurity Stack Analysis

The new Cybersecurity Stack Analysis feature lives directly inside the IT Harvest Dashboard, the company’s subscription-based cybersecurity intelligence platform.

Here’s what it does: security leaders can load their list of cybersecurity products into the dashboard and instantly see how their tools align with major security frameworks. That includes:

  • NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0
  • MITRE ATT&CK
  • CIS Controls
  • ISO-style control requirements

The output is not just a static report. The dashboard generates visual matrices and coverage maps that immediately highlight where the organization is well-protected, where there is overlap among tools, and where there are gaps that need attention.

This capability is powered by IT Harvest’s long-running effort to catalog the cybersecurity industry. Today, the IT Harvest platform tracks 4,000 vendors and more than 11,300 cybersecurity products. Cybersecurity Stack Analysis uses that dataset, and applies AI, to evaluate how each tool addresses different control areas across those frameworks.

To see the platform in action or request access, visit the IT Harvest Dashboard.

The Data and AI Behind the Platform

When IT Harvest first began building its database, the objective was to document every cybersecurity company in the world and make that intelligence useful. That work became the foundation of the IT Harvest Dashboard. Now, with Cybersecurity Stack Analysis, IT Harvest is turning intelligence into direct operational guidance.

The process starts by mapping each cybersecurity product to attacker behaviors and defensive controls. For example, the MITRE ATT&CK framework describes the methods adversaries use to compromise systems, move laterally, and escalate privileges. IT Harvest correlates products to those behaviors, and then to defensive requirements in frameworks such as NIST CSF 2.0.

In other words, IT Harvest is not just listing what a product claims to do. It is identifying where and how that product provides coverage in real-world attack and defense situations.

“We’ve made it automatic,” Stiennon said in his recent discussion with MITechNews. “All you need is your list of products, and you can immediately see where your stack aligns with frameworks like NIST and MITRE.”

That automation is powered by large language models and data science. Tasks that used to require months of human review and spreadsheet work are now available on demand inside the dashboard interface.

Who Benefits Most

It would be easy to assume that a capability like Cybersecurity Stack Analysis is meant only for large banks, insurance companies, or global manufacturers. That’s part of the market — but it is not the entire market.

Stiennon noted that organizations with as few as 1,000 employees are already expressing interest. Many mid-sized companies face the same requirements as global enterprises when it comes to compliance, reporting, governance, and proving that due care has been taken. What they do not have are unlimited budgets or 30-person in-house security teams.

For these companies, Cybersecurity Stack Analysis provides:

  • A fast way to prepare for audits and board reviews
  • Evidence of alignment to NIST CSF 2.0 and other standards
  • A roadmap for filling coverage gaps without guesswork
  • A justification for renewals, consolidations, or cost reductions

At the high end of the market, large enterprises — including members of the Global 2000 — will use this same capability to rationalize their portfolios. When a security team is managing hundreds of tools across multiple business units and regions, even a small percentage of consolidation turns into meaningful budget recovery.

Real-World Example: Mapping a Bank’s Security Stack

During the MITechNews segment, Stiennon walked through an example based on a major bank. He built a representative “stack” of 17 cybersecurity products and ran them through Cybersecurity Stack Analysis to see how they aligned with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.

The results were revealing.

First, the tool showed that while those 17 products delivered meaningful coverage, full NIST coverage typically requires 33 to 45 security products. In other words, even a mature and well-funded organization can still have exposure.

Second, the dashboard highlighted areas with no coverage at all. One gap involved life-cycle tracking. The analysis made it clear that the example stack lacked tools to manage systems, hardware, software, services, and data throughout their full life cycle. That’s an issue that might not surface in day-to-day operations but becomes critical in compliance and risk review.

Third, the visualization also exposed redundancy. In some control areas, the dashboard showed multiple tools performing the same or very similar functions. These areas were marked with dense clusters of coverage indicators. As Stiennon put it, “The things with lots of dots are where you’ve got overlap — and maybe an opportunity to save some money.”

This is a core value of Cybersecurity Stack Analysis: it delivers both sides of the story. Where are you strong, and where are you wasting money?

Accessibility and Pricing for Cybersecurity Stack Analysis

The Cybersecurity Stack Analysis feature is built directly into the IT Harvest Dashboard. It is available as part of the company’s standard SaaS model at $17,800 per seat per year. That license provides secure access to the dashboard environment for a full year.

Instead of hiring a consulting firm and waiting months for a static report, security leaders can get immediate visibility into framework alignment, redundancies, vendor distribution, and risk posture. The goal is to let security teams act faster and make decisions backed by data, not assumptions.

For more information or to explore the platform firsthand, visit the IT Harvest Dashboard for Cybersecurity Stack Analysis.

How Cybersecurity Stack Analysis Fits into IT Harvest’s Evolution

This announcement continues a story that MITechNews has been following throughout 2025. In September, we profiled IT Harvest’s research-driven approach to cataloging cybersecurity vendors and products in the article

“Inside IT Harvest: Cybersecurity Vendor Research”, highlighting the company’s mission to provide clarity in an increasingly crowded market.

In October, MITechNews explored the platform’s visualization and analysis capabilities in

“IT Harvest Cybersecurity Dashboard: Visualizing the Threat Landscape”, detailing how the Dashboard helps analysts and security leaders explore vendors, track funding, and identify competitors.

Cybersecurity Stack Analysis marks the next phase of that evolution—from data collection and visualization to actionable decision support. IT Harvest is no longer just documenting the cybersecurity market; it is empowering organizations to measure their own environments against industry frameworks and standards with precision.

The Bigger Picture: Smarter Security, Less Complexity

Managing cybersecurity has always involved a tension between innovation and control. Every new threat creates demand for a new tool. Over time, that turns into “tool sprawl,” a security stack so large and fragmented that no one has complete visibility.

Cybersecurity Stack Analysis addresses that visibility problem. Instead of guesswork, assumptions, and out-of-date spreadsheets, security teams get a live, data-driven model of their real posture. The dashboard highlights gaps. It also reveals where there is overlap, and ties those findings directly back to widely accepted standards like NIST CSF 2.0 and MITRE ATT&CK.

That shift — from manual assessment to on-demand intelligence — is likely to define cybersecurity operations for the next decade. As budgets tighten, regulations expand, and executive teams demand clearer risk reporting, security leaders will need fast, defensible answers. IT Harvest is building the toolkit to provide those answers.

The Takeaway: Why Cybersecurity Stack Analysis Matters

Cybersecurity Stack Analysis gives security teams the clarity they’ve been missing. Instead of waiting weeks or months for consultant-driven reports, organizations can now visualize their entire cybersecurity stack in minutes — including framework alignment, vendor distribution, coverage scoring, and areas of both risk and redundancy.

The early response from security leaders has been strong. Interest is coming from global enterprises and mid-sized organizations alike, all looking for a faster way to simplify, consolidate, and demonstrate compliance without overspending.

Under the leadership of Richard Stiennon, IT Harvest continues to position itself at the center of the cybersecurity intelligence conversation — delivering high-trust data, intelligent automation, and practical tools for decision-makers.

To explore the Cybersecurity Stack Analysis feature and experience the platform firsthand, visit the

IT Harvest Dashboard for Cybersecurity Stack Analysis.