Gartner Researches' Magic Quadrants are well known for categorizing innovations and defining the prevailing characteristics of tools and services in a specific marketplace. This year's E-Discovery Software Magic Quadrant has identified the trends in the space, including predictions on the market size of the e-discovery software as well as an assessment of how the key players in the industry are preforming.

Those in the market for a new tool can use the report to quickly determine what vendors do best, and find the right fit for their practice. Twenty of the most popular e-discovery software suites were ranked for their ability to execute and for the completeness of their vision, dividing the group into four categories: challengers, leaders, visionaries and niche players of the e-discovery space.

Rankings:

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  • Leaders: kCura Corp., FTI Consulting Inc.'s FTI Technology, Recommind Inc., ZyLAB, HP, Nuix Pty Ltd. and Exterro Inc.
  • Challengers: Epiq Systems Inc., Kroll Ontrack Inc., AccessData Group Inc. and Symantec Corp.
  • Visionaries: Guidance Software, IBM Corp., Catalyst Repository Systems and Microsoft Corp.
  • Niche Players: CommVault Systems Inc., Driven Inc., Ubic Inc., Xerox Corp. and LexisNexis

While 2014's rankings were considered stagnant for including the same 20 names from 2013 (with only minor movement between categories, this year's rankings showed the addition of several names as well as the exit of others including: KPMG, Stroz Friedberg and Integreon.