CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

IANS vs Immersive

IANS is a practitioner-sourced intelligence engine where data, peer experience and expert insights converge for security teams. Immersive sells Immersive One, which tests how people, AI-enabled workflows, security teams, and agents perform under pressure. CISO Tribune files both under Security awareness training. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • IANS
  • Immersive
IANS vs Immersive: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
IANSIANS is a practitioner-sourced intelligence engine where data, peer experience and expert insights converge for security teams.ians.comImmersiveImmersive sells Immersive One, which tests how people, AI-enabled workflows, security teams, and agents perform under pressure.immersivelabs.com
What it sells
  • Ask IANS[12]An AI Q&A service built on a proprietary database of IANS Faculty expert advice.
  • Client Portal[12][14]A library of research, tools and templates contributed by IANS Faculty.
  • CISO Inquiry Community[12]An invitation-only service where CISOs gain insights from a private community of peers.
  • Immersive One[3][4][5][9][12]Immersive One tests how people, AI-enabled workflows, security teams, and agents perform under pressure.
  • Hands-On Labs[6][10]Browser-based environments where an individual completes a real security task against live systems and tooling.
  • Cyber Drills[3][7][13]Cyber Drills recreate real incidents across people, process, and technology.
  • Cyber Range Exercises[7]Cyber Range Exercises are typically run with technical and SOC teams.
  • Resilience Pathways[10]A Resilience Pathway is a structured, role-based development journey that maps current capability to the skills a role requires.
  • AI Knowledge Pass[2][10]AI Knowledge Pass validates a person's AI-related knowledge before they're granted access to AI tools.
  • Resilience Score[3][6]Resilience Score quantifies an organization's ability to detect, respond to, and recover from cyber threats.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • August 25, 2026IANS named Kelley Hippler as its Chief Revenue Officer, citing her revenue leadership experience at Thought Industries, Briefly Legal, and Forrester.[16]
  • July 15, 2026IANS announced the launch of its Model Context Protocol Server, which delivers cybersecurity insights and data through the AI tools security teams use.[10]
  • March 31, 2026IANS announced the launch of a security-focused news offering with daily coverage written by its in-house reporters and backed by expert practitioner analysis.[9]
  • February 4, 2026IANS appointed Dan Klein as Executive Vice President, Faculty and Professional Services.[11]
Not stated on its pages
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[14]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, IANS sells mainly to CISOs and their cybersecurity teams. A privacy service from IANS is aimed at CISOs, privacy teams and compliance teams. IANS offers an invitation-only community in which CISOs gain insights from their peers. IANS describes professional development that runs from hands-on technical skill to the executive table. No vendor can become an IANS client. IANS offers data-as-a-service delivery of its content to clients that license it.Financial services organizations are addressed directly, with a focus on proving cyber readiness to Boards, C-level executives, and regulators. Application security programs aimed at developers who need to prove and improve secure coding skills form a further audience. Access to capabilities depends on the customer's agreed scope and deployment model.
Last verified
October 16, 2026November 8, 2026

Where they overlap

  • IANS and Immersive are both filed under Security awareness training.

Where they differ, field by field

  • IANS's primary category is Security consulting and advisory; Immersive's is Security awareness training.
  • IANS is also filed under Penetration testing and red team services. Immersive is also filed under Human risk management and AI governance.
  • IANS lists Ask IANS, Client Portal and CISO Inquiry Community. Immersive lists Immersive One, Hands-On Labs, Cyber Drills, Cyber Range Exercises, Resilience Pathways and 2 more.

What it sells: IANS

What Client Portal does[12][14]
The Client Portal provides a library of research, tools and templates contributed by IANS Faculty. Client Portal website data and infrastructure are based in the U.S.

What it sells: Immersive

What Immersive One does[3][4][5][9][12]
Immersive One covers labs, simulations, AI readiness, and reporting. Access is determined by the customer’s agreed scope and deployment model.
What Cyber Drills does[3][7][13]
A Cyber Drill exercise is a simulated cyber attack that tests an organization's ability to detect, respond to, and recover from threats. Cyber Drills extend to business functions such as legal and comms.
What AI Knowledge Pass does[2][10]
AI Knowledge Pass connects access to proven competency rather than a one-time policy acknowledgment. It supports governance and compliance reporting as AI adoption scales.
What Resilience Score does[3][6]
Immersive's Resilience Score combines nine measured factors into a single value benchmarked against industry peers. The score is powered by up-to-date performance data from across the Immersive One platform.

Questions about IANS and Immersive

What do IANS and Immersive sell?
IANS sells Ask IANS, Client Portal and CISO Inquiry Community. Immersive sells Immersive One, Hands-On Labs, Cyber Drills, Cyber Range Exercises, Resilience Pathways and 2 more.
Are IANS and Immersive in the same category?
They share Security awareness training. IANS's primary category is Security consulting and advisory and Immersive's is Security awareness training.
Who are IANS and Immersive sold to?
From its own pages, IANS sells mainly to CISOs and their cybersecurity teams. Financial services organizations are addressed directly, with a focus on proving cyber readiness to Boards, C-level executives, and regulators.
What have IANS and Immersive announced recently?
August 25, 2026: IANS named Kelley Hippler as its Chief Revenue Officer, citing her revenue leadership experience at Thought Industries, Briefly Legal, and Forrester.

About IANS

IANS is a practitioner-sourced intelligence engine where data, peer experience and expert insights converge for security teams. IANS has had a single focus on cybersecurity from the beginning. IANS describes itself as a cybersecurity research and advisory firm that provides services to support decision-making for CISOs and their cybersecurity teams. IANS was launched in 2000. IANS describes a proprietary intelligence platform that mines the collective experience of its CISO community and Faculty.[3][12]

IANS says its data comes from thousands of conversations between 170+ Faculty, who are security practitioners in the field, and CISO clients. IANS states that its vendor intelligence is based on facts and data. No vendor can become an IANS client. IANS uses AI to deliver answers from its practitioner-validated intelligence base of cybersecurity decisions.[3]

IANS offers the Ask-An-Expert service, which provides clients with unlimited access to seasoned cybersecurity professionals for guidance on various topics. Ask IANS is an AI Q&A service whose answers draw on a proprietary database of IANS Faculty expert advice. The Client Portal provides a library of research, tools and templates contributed by IANS Faculty. The IANS CISO Inquiry Community is an invitation-only service that lets CISOs gain insights and perspectives from a private community of their peers. IANS Faculty help executives communicate about cybersecurity risks and strategies to their teams and stakeholders. IANS provides briefings on the latest cybersecurity threats and technologies.[1][12]

IANS offers practitioner-based insights from IANS Faculty and industry peers covering aspects of the vendor management lifecycle. A privacy service from IANS includes an operational privacy framework, privacy toolkit, bi-monthly privacy briefings, regulation cheat sheets, and privacy communication slides. IANS provides access to daily content. IANS Faculty give live guidance on breaking cybersecurity events, incidents and breaches. IANS lets clients submit questions to a private peer community and receive insights in shared summaries. IANS offers an interactive, live setting in which to explore challenges with an IANS Faculty member. IANS also returns short, written responses from multiple faculty members on a topic.[12]

IANS acts as an adversary to identify and exploit weaknesses in client controls. IANS demonstrates adversary tactics and gives guidance to harden infrastructure. IANS offers an engagement to find the gaps in a client IR process, then test the plan against them. IANS delivers training through its Faculty practitioners to improve foundational skills and reduce knowledge gaps. IANS provides instruction with hands-on interactive labs, in multiple formats. IANS offers a personalized engagement with an executive coach from its Faculty line-up.[1]

IANS delivers its knowledge base via MCP into AI tools. For clients that license them, IANS offers data-as-a-service delivery of IANS proprietary content, including the IANS MCP Server. The IANS MCP server does not train or operate its own large language model. IANS does not use MCP log data to train AI models, and does not provide it to any third party for model training. Requests to speak with IANS Faculty can be submitted through the MCP.[1][12][13]

IANS protects data at rest with the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm. IANS data removal process adheres to a decommissioning policy under GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act. IANS conducts annual penetration testing and monthly internal network and vulnerability scans through independent external parties. IANS and Artico Search surveyed more than 525 infosec professionals as part of the 2024 Staff Compensation and Satisfaction Survey. The 2025 Cybersecurity Staff Compensation Benchmark report draws on survey data gathered from June through the end of 2024. The report includes a breakdown of compensation for various roles across security functions and the factors that most impact compensation packages.[1][2][5][6][7][8][15]

IANS on the record

Sources

IANS full record

  1. [1]ians.comIANS · ians.com · undated page, accessed October 16, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Security program assessmentsIANS · ians.com · undated page, accessed October 16, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]About IANS — who we are and what we believe | IANSIANS · undated page, accessed November 2, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]IANS — The intelligence platform for security leadersIANS · undated page, accessed November 2, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]2024 Security Budgets: Data From 755 CISOsIANS · published September 5, 2024 · Tier A
  6. [6]IANS 2025 Security Budget Benchmark ReportIANS · published August 5, 2025 · Tier A
  7. [7]Cybersecurity Salaries 2026: Staff Pay and Retention DataIANS · published March 31, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Webinar: Where to Deploy AI Across Your SecOps TeamIANS · undated page, accessed November 2, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]IANS Launches News Offering and Reinvents Its Platform for How Security Leaders Work TodayIANS · published March 31, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]IANS Launches the First Cybersecurity MCP Server Delivering Practitioner-Validated Intelligence Directly into Clients' Native AI ToolsIANS · published July 15, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]IANS appoints Dan Klein as Executive Vice President, Faculty and Professional Services to Support Faculty and Consulting Services GrowthIANS · published February 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Terms of Service | IANSIANS · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]MCP Data Privacy & Security | IANSIANS · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]IANS Cybersecurity Commitment | IANSIANS · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]2025 Staff Pay Data From 525+ Infosec ProfessionalsIANS · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]New CRO to Help IANS Expand Practitioner-Sourced Intelligence, Peer Insight, and AI-Ready Guidance for Security TeamsIANS · published August 25, 2026 · Tier A

Immersive full record

  1. [1]immersivelabs.comImmersive · immersivelabs.com · undated page, accessed November 8, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Immersive one launches ai knowledge pass to close ai governance gap with industry first access control capabilityImmersive · immersivelabs.com · published July 1, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Prove Cyber Resilience with Drills & Labs | ImmersiveImmersive · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Cybersecurity for Manufacturing - ImmersiveImmersive · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Cybersecurity Training Platform for Teams & AI | ImmersiveImmersive · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Hands-On Cybersecurity Training & Labs - ImmersiveImmersive · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Cyber Range & Cybersecurity Exercises for AI ReadinessImmersive · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Cybersecurity Digital Tabletop Exercises for AI ReadinessImmersive · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Cyber Resilience Metrics & Benchmarking - ImmersiveImmersive · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Resilience Pathways: Cybersecurity Learning Paths - ImmersiveImmersive · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Secure SDLC Training - ImmersiveImmersive · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Financial Services Cybersecurity - ImmersiveImmersive · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Why Immersive - ImmersiveImmersive · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Immersive Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & FeaturesG2 · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier C

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