IANS

IANS (Institute for Applied Network Security) is a research and advisory firm for information security leaders. Its products include Ask-an-Expert access to a faculty of practitioners, peer community, deployment-focused reports, tools and templates, and consulting such as security assessments. It sells mainly annual subscriptions to enterprise CISOs and also holds GSA federal contracts. It was founded in 2001 by Phil Gardner, and Tracxn lists Apax as an investor (first round about 2024). Headcount estimates vary widely by source, from about 180 to 500 in 2024–2026.