September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › IT › Cloud and infrastructure › CNAPP › Small business · September 2026 Edition

Cloud-native application protection for small business buyers

Asked as “CNAPP”, and as “cloud-native application protection platform”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
46Microsoft Defender for Cloud25Aikido Security08Wiz21others

46% of first choices, clear leader.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Microsoft Defender for Cloud46%7%61endorsed leader
02Aikido Security25%0%32accepted challenger
03Wiz8%43%49criticized challenger
04Falco2%0%18accepted challenger
05Orca Security2%30%50criticized challenger
06Sweet Security2%5%19accepted challenger
07Prowler2%0%16accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09Prisma Cloud0%76%25criticized challenger
08Sysdig Secure0%29%14criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not small business.
All six head-to-head pages: the top four products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Microsoft Defender for Cloud46%
02Aikido Security25%
03Wiz8%
04Falco2%
05Orca Security2%
06Sweet Security2%
07Prowler2%
08Sysdig Secure0%
09Prisma Cloud0%

What they warned about

Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash and Kimi K2 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Prisma Cloud
76%
19 of 25 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 11 hard negative
“This is the one most consistently flagged as a poor fit for small businesses... Be most cautious with Prisma Cloud (cost, complexity, opaque pricing)” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Wiz
43%
21 of 49 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Avoid Wiz/Orca/Prisma unless you have specific compliance or multi-cloud-at-scale requirements that justify the enterprise price.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, direct prompt
Orca Security
30%
15 of 50 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Avoid Wiz/Orca/Prisma unless you have specific compliance or multi-cloud-at-scale requirements” DeepSeek V4 Flash, direct prompt
CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security
67%
6 of 9 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“For a small business not already invested in that vendor's broader stack, this is usually a trap.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

What they cite

Twelve of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited and eight the search results they consulted.

Sites the answers cite

64 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 912 links across 165 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · CyberPress51 answers · 71 citations · 11 models
39 answers · 42 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Aikido37 answers · 48 citations · 11 models
36 answers · 39 citations · 10 models
vendor site · SourceForge32 answers · 35 citations · 11 models
29 answers · 29 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Wiz24 answers · 30 citations · 7 models
vendor site · G221 answers · 38 citations · 8 models
21 answers · 26 citations · 8 models
21 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Aikido18 answers · 18 citations · 6 models
vendor site · Cloudaware16 answers · 16 citations · 6 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best cnapp”, “cnapp”, “cnapps”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Microsoft Defender microsoft.com
Microsoft Defender for Cloud 46%
46%65918,1003,525145,358,109 company$12,4551031
Aikido aikido.dev
Aikido Security 25%
25%3262,400516,442 company$936120
Wiz wiz.io8%76440,50016,751102,573$6,8561202
Snyk snyk.io4%15012,10058161,65160
Falco falco.org2%11927,1004,242383
Orca Security orca.security2%3791,900103125,483$441278
Sweet Security sweet.security2%4720308171
Prowler prowler.com2%8640,5006,189671
CloudMatos2%
Lightspin2%

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 22 sites; 1 of them are among the sites the models cited here (wiz.io). The first result for “best cnapp” is gartner.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best CNAPP for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which cloud-native application protection platform would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top CNAPPs for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best CNAPP for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a CNAPP. What should we look at?”Negative“Which CNAPPs should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5CloudMatos, Lightspin
Two alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Zscaler Posture Control
Aqua Security, SnykChangedagainst: Prisma CloudWiz
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Sysdig Secure, Tenable Cloud Security
Falco, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prowler
Five alternativesOrca Security, Rapid7 InsightCloudSec, Sweet Security, Sysdig Secure, Wiz
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniOrca Security, Wiz
One alternativeCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security
Microsoft Defender for CloudChanged
Two alternativesOrca Security, Uptycs
Wiz
Four alternativesAWS Security Hub, Google Security Command Center, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud
Tenable One Cloud Exposure / CNAPP
Two alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Wiz
no first choiceagainst: Aqua Security
Gemini 3.5 FlashAikido Security
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Wiz
Aikido SecurityHeld
Two alternativesOrca Security, Wiz
Aikido Security
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prowler
against: Wiz
Aikido Security
Six alternativesCyscale CNAPP, Deepfence ThreatMapper, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prowler, Trivy, vul.ninja
against: Orca Security, Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud, Wiz
Aikido Security, Snyk
Two alternativesAWS Security Hub, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
against: Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Orca Security, Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Sysdig Secure, Wiz
Perplexity SonarAikido Security
Two alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security
against: Wiz
Aikido SecurityHeld
One alternativeOrca Security
against: Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Wiz
Five alternativesAikido Security, Aqua Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Sysdig Secure
Aikido Security
Four alternativesAWS GuardDuty/Security Hub, Google Security Command Center, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security
against: Wiz
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.20Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesAikido Security, Falco, Trivy
against: Orca Security, Sweet Security
Microsoft Defender for CloudHeld
One alternativeAikido Security
against: Aqua Security, Orca Security, Sysdig Secure, Wiz
Aikido Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesOrca Security, Sysdig Secure, Wiz
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Prisma Cloud
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Six alternativesAikido Security, Cloudanix, Falco, Fidelis Halo Cloud Secure, Prowler, Trivy
against: Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
Wiz
Four alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, SentinelOne Singularity
against: Aqua Security, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Sysdig Secure, Wiz
Mistral SmallMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Two alternativesAikido Security, Runecast
no first choiceChangedAikido Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesOrca Security, Sweet Security, Wiz
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Four alternativesFalco, Orca Security, Prowler, Sweet Security
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Four alternativesAWS Security Hub + GuardDuty, Falco, Prowler, Sysdig Secure
against: Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
Aikido SecurityChanged
One alternativeMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
against: Orca Security, Wiz
Aikido Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Two alternativesSweet Security, Upwind
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Orca Security, Wiz
Aikido Security
Two alternativesCloudaware, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
against: Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Sweet Security
Two alternativesOrca Security, Wiz
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Rapid7 InsightCloudSec, Tenable Cloud Security, Wiz, Zscaler
Llama 4 MaverickMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesFalco, Prowler, Runecast
Microsoft Defender for CloudHeld
One alternativeSysdig Secure
no first choiceMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Six alternativesAmazon GuardDuty, Falco, Google Security Command Center, Orca Security, Prowler, Sweet Security
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashAikido Security
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Wiz
against: Prisma Cloud
WizChanged
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Snyk
Wiz
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Snyk
against: Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Five alternativesAWS Security Hub, Falco, Qualys, Snyk, Wiz
against: Datadog Cloud Security, Prisma Cloud
no first choiceagainst: Check Point CloudGuard, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud
Kimi K2Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Two alternativesAikido Security, Orca Security
Aikido SecurityChanged
One alternativeMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
Aikido Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Four alternativesFalco, Sweet Security, Trivy, Upwind
against: Aqua Security, Orca Security, Sysdig Secure, Wiz
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesFalco, Prowler, Trivy
against: FortiCNAPP, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Two alternativesOrca Security, Wiz
against: Prisma Cloud
against: CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, FortiCNAPP, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Prisma Cloud, Wiz
GLM 4.7 FlashXMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesAikido Security, Orca Security, Sweet Security
against: Prisma Cloud, Wiz
Microsoft Defender for CloudHeld
One alternativeOrca Security
against: Prisma Cloud, Wiz
Aikido Security
Five alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Sysdig Secure, Uptycs, Wiz
Aikido Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Ten alternativesCheckov, Cloudanix, DefectDojo, Falco, Fidelis Halo Cloud Secure, KICS, Open Policy Agent, Tetragon, TigerGate, Trivy
no first choiceagainst: Prisma Cloudagainst: Cloudflare, FortiCNAPP, Prisma Cloud, Skyhigh Security, Wiz
MiniMax M2.5Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Four alternativesFortiCNAPP, Prisma Cloud, Runecast, Wiz
Microsoft Defender for CloudHeld
Three alternativesCrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, FortiCNAPP, Orca Security
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Three alternativesAikido Security, Orca Security, Sweet Security
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Four alternativesFalco, Orca Security, Prowler, Sweet Security
Wiz
Three alternativesMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud
against: Check Point CloudGuard, Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:41yes179 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:11yes46 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:51yes1827 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:44yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 13:50yes3117 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:51yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:49yes1318 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:45yes55 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:45yes1332 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:45yes827 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 14:00yes23180 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:55yes1018 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:41no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:55yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:30yes1125 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:56yes207 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 12:07yes3517 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:18no02 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:40yes1318 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:51yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:09no037 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:51yes2234 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:37yes24142 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:28yes1329 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:37yes911 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:49yes48 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:29yes1832 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:26yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 09:53yes1714 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:10yes910 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:27yes2629 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:35yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:26no043 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:47yes1247 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:42yes15132 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:54yes1043 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:28yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:52yes37 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:37yes2125 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:53yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 09:45yes2816 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:53yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:06yes1617 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:54yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:27no048 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:37yes2444 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:26yes1882 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:34yes531 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:58yes99 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:46no012 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:12yes827 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:54yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 09:35yes1811 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:30no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:36yes819 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:38yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:03no040 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:52yes1441 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:35yes1453 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:11yes527 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:09yes1810 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:49yes46 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:05yes1423 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:23yes2020 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 12:20yes2215 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:55yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:02yes2728 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:05yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:13yes1075 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:01yes2768 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:36yes33108 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:10yes1433 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Aikido read as Aikido Security
Aqua read as Aqua Security
Check Point (CloudGuard) read as Check Point CloudGuard
CrowdStrike Falcon read as CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security
CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud read as CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security
Cyscale read as Cyscale CNAPP
Datadog read as Datadog Cloud Security
Lacework read as FortiCNAPP
Lacework / FortiCNAPP read as FortiCNAPP
Orca read as Orca Security
Palo Alto Networks (Prisma Cloud / Cortex Cloud) read as Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud
Palo Alto Networks (Prisma Cloud) read as Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud
Rapid7 read as Rapid7 InsightCloudSec
Rapid7 (InsightCloudSec) read as Rapid7 InsightCloudSec
Sweet read as Sweet Security
Sysdig read as Sysdig Secure
Tenable read as Tenable Cloud Security
Unresolved, counted raw
CloudMatos
PureSecurity
Tenable One Cloud Exposure / CNAPP
vul.ninja
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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