CIRA Named as Emerging Tech by Gartner® - Here’s Why That Matters

“The adoption of CIRA is expected to rise, driven by typical buyer demand for IR.”
- Gartner, Emerging Tech Impact Radar: Cloud Security (2025)

Security teams are under increasing pressure to make faster, clearer decisions across increasingly complex environments. As attack surfaces expand and visibility fragments, incident response capabilities are being re-evaluated - not just for speed, but for depth and decisiveness.

That’s where Cloud Investigation and Response Automation (CIRA) comes in.

CIRA: From Concept to Consideration

CIRA is now officially on the Gartner radar. In its 2025 Emerging Tech Impact Radar: Cloud Security, Gartner identifies Cloud Investigation and Response Automation (CIRA) as an emerging technology with growing interest - particularly among security teams seeking more forensic depth and investigation agility.

Gartner defines CIRA as “an emerging technology that forensically collects, analyzes and applies analytics and machine learning to cloud and various forensic data sources. The defining goal of these offerings is to forensically analyze incidents, find and collect related artifacts, and correlate log events in support of comprehensive investigations of confirmed threats.”

And while “cloud” is in the name, the implications go far beyond that.

Not Just for the Cloud

Our one standout takeaway from the report:

“Enhance forensics and IR to address multiple environments rather than just clouds by including on-premises traditional systems, identity, cloud workloads and mobile endpoints to resolve buyers’ broader forensic needs across all environments.”

In other words, CIRA isn’t just for cloud-first organizations - it’s highly relevant for any security team operating in hybrid environments, modernizing their SOC, or simply looking to reduce time-to-clarity after an alert or incident.

Who Should Be Paying Attention?

Gartner notes that adoption is being driven by mature buyers: large enterprises, MSSPs, and IR consultancies that have already addressed foundational prevention and compliance - and are now looking to go deeper.

But for organizations on the cusp of that maturity curve, this report is just as valuable. It offers insight into:

• Where CIRA fits into the broader IR landscape

• What’s driving the growing interest

• What forward-leaning teams are prioritizing next

Complimentary Access - For a Limited Time

Normally gated behind a Gartner subscription, this report is now available and complimentary for a limited time.

📥 Download the full Gartner report here →

Gartner, Emerging Tech Impact Radar: Cloud Security, Mark Wah, Charanpal Bhogal, 29 January 2025.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.