Secure Web Gateway Software Business Requirements

A structured requirements checklist for evaluating Secure Web Gateway (SWG) solutions — functional controls, non-functional criteria, and a vendor scoring matrix, delivered as an Excel workbook.

A generic list says "must support SSL/TLS inspection and URL filtering" and stops there. It won't tell you that full TLS inspection at scale can cripple throughput on an undersized appliance, or that pushing a custom root CA to every endpoint breaks certificate-pinned apps and forces you to maintain a bypass list from day one. It won't ask whether the gateway is a cloud-delivered SASE service sitting close to your remote workforce, or an on-prem proxy that backhauls their traffic through a data center — a choice that decides whether remote employees get office-grade latency or VPN-era lag. And it won't flag that healthcare and financial traffic often needs to bypass decryption entirely for regulatory reasons, making selective decryption policy the real requirement, not blanket inspection.

Inside the Workbook

• Functional Requirements — organized by URL/content filtering, malware and threat prevention, TLS/SSL inspection, DLP/CASB integration, policy management, and remote/hybrid workforce coverage.
• 100+ Non-Functional Requirements — throughput and latency under full inspection, high availability, identity integration, scalability, and compliance.
• Evaluation Template — an Excel scoring workbook with weighted criteria and vendor comparison.

How It's Used

• Issue to shortlisted SWG or SASE vendors as part of an RFP and score responses against the same weighted criteria.
• Use the TLS-inspection and bypass-list requirement rows to pressure-test "zero-latency full inspection" claims before a proof-of-concept.
• Hand to security architects to validate SASE/CASB/ZTNA integration claims against your existing identity and DLP stack.

Built For

Security architects, IT leaders, and procurement teams evaluating SWG, SASE, or web security platforms for hybrid and remote workforces.