Nominations are open • Enter by February 27, 2027 • Time left: Start a nomination
Award categoryCybersecurity Product / Service
The Cybersecurity Excellence Awards recognize network security products. It covers products that protect networks and their traffic, either by combining several network controls or in a way no narrower category covers.
Nominations are open
Enter this category by February 27, 2027. Anyone can submit an entry: the company, the nominee, a colleague or an agency.
The Network Security category covers products that protect an organization's networks and the traffic that crosses them: on premises, in branches, in data centers and between clouds. Typical entries combine several network controls, such as traffic inspection, segmentation, intrusion prevention, secure connectivity and network visibility, or protect the network in a way that no narrower category describes.
Most network products have a narrower home on this site; this category is for those that cover several network jobs at once or that no narrower category fits. Specialist products such as Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), Hybrid Mesh Firewall (HMF), Network Detection and Response (NDR), Microsegmentation, Network Security Policy Management (NSPM), DNS Security, DDoS Protection and Virtual Private Network (VPN) start in their own category and can also enter here, where they compete with broader network products. Security Service Edge (SSE) and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platforms also start in their own category and can enter here. Intrusion prevention, network access control and wireless network security, which no longer have their own categories, enter here; unified threat management appliances fit Next Generation Firewall (NGFW).
Each category is judged separately, so you can enter a product in every category that matches what it does, with a separate nomination for each. Tailor each nomination to that category's focus. Entering several related categories gives the product more than one chance to be recognized.
An independent jury of security practitioners, analysts and CISOs scores each nomination on leadership, innovation and impact. Each nomination competes in its category against organizations of similar size and region, so a mid-sized firm is not ranked against a global enterprise. Your entry package, any sponsorship and public votes do not affect the jury's scores.
Strong entries in this category show:
The jury awards Gold, Silver or Bronze, or a Finalist badge, and results are published on this site and announced to the 600,000+ member Cybersecurity Insiders community. Every approved nomination also enters the separate Community Choice award, decided by public votes.
A vendor can enter its own product or service, and a PR agency can enter it on a client's behalf. The nomination form has a confidential field for detail that is shared with the judges and not published, such as customer names, deployment figures or roadmap. Deadlines, pricing and entry steps are on the How it Works page.