Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs Sysdig Secure comparison

Aqua Security and Sysdig are both solutions in the Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) category. Aqua Security is ranked #19, while Sysdig is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.3. Aqua Security holds a 3.3% mindshare in CNAP, compared to Sysdig’s 3.3% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Aqua Security users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Sysdig users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Aqua Cloud Security Platform and Sysdig Secure are two robust cloud security solutions. Aqua Cloud Security Platform seems to have an upper hand in user experience and customer support, while Sysdig Secure excels in feature richness and deeper integrations.

Features: Aqua Cloud Security Platform offers comprehensive policy management, advanced threat detection, and user-friendly security controls. Sysdig Secure provides detailed container visibility, runtime protection, and extensive monitoring capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Aqua Cloud Security Platform could enhance its analytics, improve UI consistency, and expand monitoring capabilities. Sysdig Secure needs better documentation, improved onboarding resources, and more consistent customer support.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Aqua Cloud Security Platform is known for straightforward deployment and responsive customer support. Sysdig Secure offers streamlined deployment but has mixed reviews on customer service. Customers find Aqua’s support experience more consistent, while Sysdig focuses on quicker deployment times.

Pricing and ROI: Aqua Cloud Security Platform is reasonably priced and offers a good return on investment, valued for its affordability and effectiveness. Sysdig Secure, although slightly more expensive, justifies the cost with its superior feature set and robust performance.

To learn more, read our detailed Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs. Sysdig Secure Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs. Sysdig Secure

March 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 885,667 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

SentinelOne Singularity Clo...

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) category, the mindshare of SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is 6.1%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Aqua Cloud Security Platform is 3.3%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sysdig Secure is 3.3%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security	6.1%
Sysdig Secure	3.3%
Aqua Cloud Security Platform	3.3%
Other	87.3%

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)

Featured Reviews

Satyavijay Chavan

Information Security Engineer at DataVigilant Infotech

Enables us to prioritize and effectively address critical security issues

Evidence-based reporting helps us to prioritize and solve critical security issues. The new visualization feature demonstrates how an attacker can enter the system, highlighting the potential path that can be exploited and outlining all the steps the attacker could take. With that visibility, we can ensure the perimeter is strong and attackers cannot enter, thus reducing the risk. It has helped us prioritize issues. The visibility into how an attack could happen is valuable. For example, it highlights the system vulnerability and outlines where an attack could propagate. The visualization helps me to prioritize remediation, and if I don't know where to start, I can check to see the score that enables me to prioritize issues. I am using infrastructure-as-code scanning, and it's one of the useful features. In pre-production, it identifies embedded secrets and misconfigurations, including issues with Kubernetes or some privileged containers. This feature allows us to pass the audit and secure IaC code so that it isn't easily exploitable by attackers. We can more proactively work to identify and resolve vulnerabilities by using the dashboard and the alerting system that SentinelOne provides. It helps us with audits and compliance. We can show the compliance in percentage. We can confidently say that our company or infrastructure is very secure. It has improved our security posture by 30% to 35%. It has reduced our false positives by 30%. It has helped teams collaborate better. The security team manages SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security, and when it flags vulnerabilities, they are forwarded to DevOps for remediation. Previously, we needed to identify and report the issues, but there would be lapses in communication. Now, there is a centralized dashboard that anyone can look at and see the open issues and work on them.

Read full review

Burak AKCAGUN

Business Development Manager at Axoft Ukraine

A robust and cost-effective solution, excelling in scalability, on-premises support, and responsive technical support, making it well-suited for enterprises navigating stringent regulatory environment

The most crucial aspect is runtime protection, specifically image scanning before preproduction and deployment. Customers find it invaluable to have the ability to check for vulnerabilities in an image before deployment, similar to a sandbox environment. This feature ensures that customers can identify any potential issues with the image, such as misconfigurations or vulnerabilities, before integrating it into their workloads and infrastructure. In their source pipeline, companies can identify issues before deploying changes. This is crucial because customers prefer resolving any problems or misconfigurations before the deployment process. Software change security, including GSPM Cloud, is a key feature customers seek in their infrastructure.

Read full review

Mumu Muhaemin

DevSecOps Engineer at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Runtime threat detection has improved and security teams prioritize real Kubernetes risks

The best feature Sysdig Secure offers is threat detection. The threat detection feature on Sysdig Secure stands out compared to other solutions I have seen or used because Sysdig sees the actual behavior inside the container or kernel and correlates it with Kubernetes infrastructure, which makes detection both earlier and more precise in a cloud-native environment. Sysdig Secure has positively impacted our organization by improving visibility into our Kubernetes environment and focusing on real risk, which has reduced alert noise, improved threat detection at runtime, and made vulnerability management more efficient by prioritizing issues that actually affect running workloads.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I would rate their support a ten out of ten."

"SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security offers comprehensive security posture management."

"We mostly use alerts. That has been pretty good. If we use the alert system from Amazon, it is much costlier to us, so we use SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security."

"The biggest benefit of SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is that it has a good AI-based analytics engine that helps with the detection part by providing full visibility."

"Cloud Native Security offers a valuable tool called an offensive search engine."

"For Singularity, the task capability is easy to use and it has a very intuitive dashboard, which streamlines the processes."

"It is very straightforward. It is not complicated. For the information that it provides, it does a pretty good job."

"Our previous product took a lot of man hours to manage. Once we got Singularity Cloud Workload Security, it freed up our time to work on other tasks."

More SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security pros

"We use Aqua Security for the container security features."

"We mainly used Aqua Security for container-related Kubernetes security in the CI/CD pipelines to secure the runtime of the Kubernetes clusters."

"Aqua Security helps us to check the vulnerability of image assurance and check for malware."

"The ROI is clear; we could not live without it because now we are getting back a picture of the vulnerability and we are able to fix severe security and vulnerability bugs."

"Customers find it invaluable to have the ability to check for vulnerabilities in an image before deployment, similar to a sandbox environment."

"Support is very helpful."

"We find the Docker and Kubernetes support for container security most valuable."

"The most valuable feature is the security."

More Aqua Cloud Security Platform pros

"We appreciate this feature, especially when combined with CD monitoring. The implementation of requested features has been remarkable, such as scanning for compliance in CRM processes for the US government. We heavily rely on this feature to assess compliance with federal requirements."

"I have not seen any stability issues so far."

"Sysdig Secure has positively impacted our organization by improving visibility into our Kubernetes environment and focusing on real risk, which has reduced alert noise, improved threat detection at runtime, and made vulnerability management more efficient by prioritizing issues that actually affect running workloads."

"From a container-based standpoint, it offers excellent scalability to its users...I would tell those planning to use the solution that, from a container standpoint, it's excellent."

"The log monitor is the most valuable feature."

"The proactiveness of the support has been fantastic. Every time we mention something in a meeting that we're trying to do, he proactively takes that as an investigation topic and looks into it. He'll provide the solution even though we might not have asked him to investigate it."

"The tool has the capability to conduct scans initially. It can perform scans on your virtual machines, physical machines, containers, and container images. A standout feature is its ability to scan offline container images stored in your container registry. Additionally, it can scan runtime images in your cluster or on your host machine. This allows for the detection of vulnerabilities in running containers, including loaded libraries. Notably, the tool can identify which library vulnerabilities are already present in your system. An added advantage is its capacity to take action beyond threat detection. It has the ability to block access and respond to encountered threats."

"I see Sysdig as the most comprehensive solution in comparison to its competitors."

More Sysdig Secure pros

Cons

"The reporting works well, but sometimes the severity classifications are inaccurate. Sometimes, it flags an issue as high-impact, but it should be a lower severity."

"Implementing single sign-on requires a pre-class account feature, which is currently not available."

"There is one concern related to SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security platform. They claim it as an AI-based integration that will provide runtime protection."

"The Singularity Cloud Security console is experiencing delays in clearing resolved issues, which can take over an hour to be removed from the display."

"We are experiencing problems with Cloud Native Security reporting."

"A few YouTube videos could be helpful. There isn't a lot of information out there to look at."

"The could improve their mean time to detect."

"The cost has the potential for improvement."

More SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security cons

"They want to release improvements to their product to work with other servers because now they are more focused on the Kubernetes environment."

"They want to release improvements to their product to work with other servers because now there are more focused on the Kubernetes environment. They need to improve the normal servers. I would like to have more options."

"Aqua is a bit expensive so you have to really justify going for it or not."

"Aqua Security could improve the forwarding of logging into Splunk and into other tools, it should be easier."

"We would like to see an improvement in the overview visibility that this solution offers."

"Aqua Security lacks a lot in reporting."

"The solution could improve user-friendliness."

"Sometimes I got stressed with the UI."

More Aqua Cloud Security Platform cons

"Perhaps, it could support more custom implementations, as our company utilizes custom implementations rather than standard ones. Configuring it requires a deep understanding and adjustment to our specific needs, which took some time. Other than that, I'm unsure about potential improvements. We were considering the possibility of compartmentalizing their tools. Currently, in Sysdig Secure, they bundle multiple features, and we are unable to use them individually. For instance, if we only need compliance scanning, we have to deploy the entire secure package. This is because of the way their agent functions, but I can't delve into more details."

"Sysdig's biggest weakness is dashboarding and reporting. You have access to the data and can get everything you need, but we need the ability to summarize the information quickly in a format that senior leaders can understand. We report to the executive level and global board. I need to roll all that in-depth information into a quick summary, and their maturity level isn't there. I'm seeing that on the future road map, but it isn't there now."

"There was a security concern related to a specific feature. While the feature itself was promising, it posed a challenge. The situation revolved around code scanning. If your source code is hosted within your own premises, say on Bitbucket, you naturally wouldn't want your code to be accessible to external parties beyond your company. Keeping your code base private is a standard practice. However, in the case of code scanning using Sysdig Secure, they copy your code to their SaaS platform. This posed an issue for us. When we inquired about this, their response acknowledged the concern. In an upcoming release, they plan to enable code scanning within your on-premises environment through the assistance of an agent. This change is already in progress. While this tool stands out compared to existing solutions in the market, it's important to note that there are still some limitations to consider. Another drawback we encountered relates to our expertise with Kubernetes. The tool can monitor Kubernetes audit logs, triggering alerts and notifications. However, it falls short in terms of taking direct action based on these alerts. There are different methods of event capture, including through system labels and system calls, as well as via Kubernetes audit events. Notably, at the system level, Sysdig Secure can both detect and respond to events, allowing actions like blocking and warning. This proactive approach is effective at the system call level. However, when it comes to monitoring Kubernetes audit events, Sysdig Secure can only notify without being able to execute any further actions. It can't block access or containers. The vendor likened their role to that of a monitoring camera, observing events and sending notifications without the capacity to intervene. This limitation applies to Kubernetes audit events. Given that everything operates within our system, there is a workaround available: configuring system-level policies to block containers as necessary."

"The solution needs to improve overall from a CSPM standpoint since they can't compete with Wiz or Orca."

"Banks and financial institutions cannot use Sysdig Secure because it doesn't sell SaaS-hosted versions for under two hundred working nodes."

"Sysdig Secure needs to scale more for complete cloud-native coverage."

"The dashboard could be more simple and show the more important issues that are detected first. We'd like to be able to set it up so more important issues show up more prominently in the dashboard."

"Sysdig Secure works well for us, but there are a few areas for improvement, such as the alerting and notification system being more flexible for complex workflows, and some dashboard and reporting features could be more customizable to match specific team needs."

More Sysdig Secure cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Singularity Cloud Workload Security's pricing is good."

"PingSafe's primary advantage is its ability to consolidate multiple tools into a single user interface, but, beyond this convenience, it may not offer significant additional benefits to justify its price."

"It's not cheap, but it is worth the price."

"Singularity Cloud Workload Security's licensing and price were cheaper than the other solutions we looked at."

"The tool is cost-effective."

"PingSafe is fairly priced."

"Its pricing is constant. It has been constant over the previous year, so I am happy with it. However, price distribution can be better explained. That is the only area I am worried about. Otherwise, the pricing is very reasonable."

"SentinelOne offers excellent pricing and licensing options."

More SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security pricing and cost advice

"It comes at a reasonable cost."

"Aqua Security is not cheap, and it's not very expensive, such as Splunk, they are in the middle."

"The pricing of this solution could be improved."

"Dealing with licensing costs isn't my responsibility, but I know that the licenses don't depend on the number of users, but instead are priced according to your workload."

"They were reasonable with their pricing. They were pretty down-to-earth about the way they pitched their product and the way they tried to close the deal. They were one of the rare companies that approached the whole valuation in a way that made sense for our company, for our needs, and for their own requirements as well... They will accommodate your needs if they are able to understand them and they're stated clearly."

"It is quite costly compared to other tools."

"The solution's pricing depends on the agents...In short, the price depends on the environment of its user."

"I am always going to say that it could be a little bit cheaper. I do feel that it is a little bit on the expensive side."

"In comparison to other cloud solutions, it's reasonably priced. However, when compared to in-house built open-source projects, it might be considered somewhat costly. The cost depends on whether someone sees the support provided by Sysdig as an advantage or if it's deemed unnecessary. Personally, I find the support to be excellent and consider it a good value."

"Sysdig is competitive. The quality matches the pricing. Obviously, everyone wants things to be cheaper, but if you're realistic, you acknowledge that quality service comes with a price. Sysdig is the gold standard for Kubernetes, and I wouldn't choose anything else. We live in Kubernetes. Everything is containerized, so that means a lot to us, and we're willing to make an investment."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

885,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	49
Midsize Enterprise	22
Large Enterprise	55

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	10

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about PingSafe?

The dashboard gives me an overview of all the things happening in the product, making it one of the tool's best featu...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PingSafe?

Regarding the pricing for SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security, I do not think it is something I can compare.

See all answers

What needs improvement with PingSafe?

I do not see room for improvement in SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security. In the future, I would like to see the i...

See all answers

What do you think of Aqua Security vs Prisma Cloud?

Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valu...

See all answers

What do you like most about Sysdig Secure?

The proactiveness of the support has been fantastic. Every time we mention something in a meeting that we're trying t...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sysdig Secure?

Sysdig Secure works well for us, but there are a few areas for improvement, such as the alerting and notification sys...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Sysdig Secure?

Our primary use case for Sysdig Secure is runtime threat detection and vulnerability management.

See all answers

Comparisons

Wiz vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 9% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 6% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 5% of the time

Orca Security vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 2% of the time

More SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security Competitors

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Aqua Cloud Security Platform

Compared 9% of the time

Wiz vs Aqua Cloud Security Platform

Compared 6% of the time

TrendAI Deep Security vs Aqua Cloud Security Platform

Compared 5% of the time

Snyk vs Aqua Cloud Security Platform

Compared 4% of the time

Tencent Cloud Workload Protection vs Aqua Cloud Security Platform

Compared 3% of the time

More Aqua Cloud Security Platform Competitors

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Sysdig Secure

Compared 8% of the time

Wiz vs Sysdig Secure

Compared 8% of the time

Upwind vs Sysdig Secure

Compared 5% of the time

Sysdig Falco vs Sysdig Secure

Compared 4% of the time

FortiCNAPP vs Sysdig Secure

Compared 4% of the time

More Sysdig Secure Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

March 2026

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security report

Download SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security product report

Buyer's Guide

Aqua Cloud Security Platform

March 2026

Download Aqua Cloud Security Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Sysdig Secure

March 2026

Download Sysdig Secure product report

Also Known As

PingSafe

Aqua Security Platform, CloudSploit, Argon

No data available

Overview

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security offers a streamlined approach to cloud security with intuitive operation and strong integration capabilities for heightened threat detection and remediation efficiency.

Singularity Cloud Security stands out for its real-time detection and response, effectively minimizing detection and remediation timelines. Its automated remediation integrates smoothly with third-party tools enhancing operational efficiency. The comprehensive console ensures visibility and support for forensic investigations. Seamless platform integration and robust support for innovation are notable advantages. Areas for development include improved search functionality, affordability, better firewall capabilities for remote users, stable agents, comprehensive reporting, and efficient third-party integrations. Clarity in the interface, responsive support, and real-time alerting need enhancement, with a call for more automation and customization. Better scalability and cost-effective integration without compromising capabilities are desired.

What are SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security's standout features?

Ease of Use: Intuitive operation simplifies navigation across platforms.
Real-Time Detection: Quick identification and response to threats.
Automated Remediation: Streamlines recovery processes with integration capabilities.
Forensic Visibility: Aids in thorough threat analysis and prevention strategies.
Comprehensive Console: Offers full visibility and historical data tracking.
Platform Integration: Supports seamless operation across cloud and hybrid environments.

What benefits should users expect from SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security?

Enhanced Efficiency: Automation and third-party integration improve threat response.
Improved Detection: Reduces mean time to detect and respond to threats.
Operational Support: Comprehensive visibility and forensic tools aid operational decisions.
Cost Efficiency: Affordable integration with scaling capabilities without high overhead.

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is deployed in industries needing robust cloud security posture management, endpoint protection, and threat hunting. Utilized frequently across AWS and Azure, it assists in monitoring, threat detection, and maintaining compliance in diverse environments while providing real-time alerts and recommendations for proactive threat management.

SentinelOne

Aqua Security stops cloud native attacks, preventing them before they happen and stopping them when they happen. Dedicated cloud native threat research and the most loved cloud native security open source community in the world put innovation at your fingertips so you can transform your business. Born cloud native, The Aqua Platform is the most integrated Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP), securing from day one and protecting in real-time. Aqua has been stopping real cloud native attacks on hundreds of thousands of production nodes across the world since 2015.

Aqua Security Features

Aqua Security has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Vulnerability scanning
Dynamic threat analysis
Automates DevSecOps
CI/CD integrations
Cloud security posture management
Kubernetes security
Hybrid and multi-cloud
Container security
Serverless security
VM security
Cloud workloads protection

Aqua Security Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Aqua Security. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Designed for scale and performance: The Aqua Security platform was designed to scale to the largest environments in order to protect huge clusters and massive DevOps pipelines.

Empowers DevOps to detect issues early and fix them fast: The solution was designed to help you solve issues immediately - before they cause greater damage to your organization. It helps you gain insight into your vulnerability posture and prioritize remediation and mitigation according to contextual risk.

Automated compliance and security posture: Aqua Security checks your cloud services, Infrastructure-as-code templates, and Kubernetes setup against best practices and standards. This way, you can ensure the infrastructure you run your applications on is securely configured and in compliance.

Artifact scanning: The Aqua Security platform scans artifacts for vulnerabilities, malware, and other risks during development and staging. It allows you to set flexible and dynamic policies to control deployment into your runtime environments.

Minimizes false positives: Aqua Security relies on a variety of sources and proprietary research to curate and present vulnerabilities in the most accurate way, which helps to minimize false positives and unnecessary noise in the pipeline.

Automated security testing: The Aqua Security platform automates security testing in your CI/CD pipeline, and continuously scans registries and serverless function stores to detect emerging risks. By implementing the platform, you can get actionable feedback within your CI environments to empower your organization’s developers to fix issues rapidly.

Granular controls: The solution provides protection for your VM, container, and serverless workloads using granular controls with instant visibility and real-time detection and response.

Sandboxed environment: With Aqua Security, you can run images in a secure sandboxed environment that traces indicators of compromise (IOCs) such as container escapes, reverse shell backdoors, malware drops, code injection backdoors, and network anomalies.

Reviews from Real Users

Lizeth Z., Cloud Security Specialist at Telstra, says, “Aqua Security is the most advanced solution in the market for container security. Aqua Security allows us to check for vulnerabilities in the CI/CD pipeline, so application teams can remediate issues before going into production. Aqua Security helps us to check the vulnerability of image assurance and check for malware.”

Aqua Security

In the cloud, every second counts. Attacks move at warp speed, and security teams must protect the business without slowing it down. Sysdig stops cloud attacks in real time, instantly detecting changes in risk with runtime insights, a unique AI architecture, and open source Falco. Sysdig delivers live visibility by correlating signals across cloud workloads, identities, and services to uncover hidden attack paths. By knowing what is running, teams can prioritize the vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, permissions, and threats that matter most. From prevention to defense, Sysdig helps enterprises move faster and focus on what matters: innovation.

Sysdig. Secure Every Second.

Sysdig

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

HPE Salesforce Telstra Ellie Mae Cathay Pacific HomeAway

SAP Concur, Goldman Sachs, Worldpay, Experian, BigCommerce, Arkose Labs, Calendly, Noteable, Bloomreach. More here: https://sysdig.com/customers/

Buyer's Guide

Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs. Sysdig Secure

March 2026

Free Report: Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs. Sysdig Secure

Find out what your peers are saying about Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs. Sysdig Secure and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

885,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs. Sysdig Secure report.

See our list of best Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) vendors and best Container Security vendors.

We monitor all Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.