Do you have a strong business case for your firewall investment?
Your Palo Alto Networks solution is a strategic component of your security estate, it reduces the number of potential security incidents, and elevates IT operations efficiency and end-user productivity. How do you calculate the Return On Investment (ROI) of your Next-Generation Firewall? And how do you maximize it? Let's take a look.
What is ROI?
Return on Investment (ROI) is a popular profitability metric used to evaluate how well an investment has performed. It is a simple calculation of the monetary value of an investment versus its cost. The ROI formula is very simple: (profit minus cost) / cost. If you save €10,000 from a €1,000 investment, your return on investment (ROI) would be 0.9, or 90%.
The base ROI formula is simple, but calculating the ROI for Next-Generation firewalls is quite challenging as it is hard to determine what savings the Next-Generation firewall brings.
Goals
Before you can calculate the ROI, a clear goal of what you want to achieve needs to be defined. What are the objectives and outcomes you want to achieve with the Next-Generation firewall? You may want to increase security, improve operations efficiency, improve end-user productivity & experience, minimize downtime, decrease overall cost due to consolidation, or decrease the likelihood of a breach.
Once you defined your goals, you can identify the metrics to track. Some examples of metrics are the number of attacks prevented, the time saving of IT operations, the time saving for triaging security incidents, the cost of downtime avoided, etc.
The mentioned metrics are completely different; one is quantity, another is time or money. While all these metrics contribute to the overall ROI, it should become clear by now that calculating a 'clear' ROI might be challenging.
Costs and benefits
Time to put numbers on the costs and benefits. The costs are usually easy to determine as it is the sum of the initial and ongoing expenses to implement, maintain, and keep the next-generation firewall up-to-date. The benefits are a lot harder to determine. You might be looking for a replacement for your current firewall where “Moore’s Law” comes in and you can have a more powerful Next-Generation firewall at a better price, it might be interesting to incorporate indirect benefits in the calculation as well. Consider the benefits when stopping threats that might impact the business in your organization, increase the efficiency of the operational teams managing the firewalls, and improve productivity for end users. The estimate of these indirect benefits may be found in your data if you are keeping track, otherwise, it is interesting to use some reports.
ROI up to 229%
Cost savings and business benefits enabled by Next-Generation firewalls with a Return On Investment up to 229%.
Access the reportROI of 163%
Realizing a Return on Investment of 163% with the use of software Next-Generation firewalls
Access the reportROI of 107%
Improve visibility in the security environment without compromising the employee experience with an ROI of 107% on a SASE solution
Access the reportList all benefits and costs each in a table with a horizon of 3, 4, or 5 years, and calculate the yearly and total costs and benefits.
Use the numbers
Once you have a clear view of the benefits and costs the ROI can be calculated. Draft a cash flow analysis table including the total costs and benefits. In the following example, the cost of the firewall is 100.000 euros and a yearly cost of 36.000 euros.
Once you have calculated your ROI, communicate it to your stakeholders and decision-makers. Explain your ROI in a way that contributes to the business and success in a clear and easily understandable way to your audience. Use charts, and dashboards, and add relevant evidence including stories that support your ROI calculation.
Remember that ROI is a dynamic given, depending on various factors like your security architecture, the subscriptions providing security capabilities, and the changing cyber threat landscape to name a few. Review and improve your ROI based on input from your internal stakeholders to ensure it is relevant and accurate.
Cash Flow Analysis | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Present Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total costs | € 100.000 | € 36.000 | € 36.000 | € 36.000 | € 208.000 |
Total benefits | € 0 | € 228.000 | € 228.000 | € 228.000 | € 684.000 |
Net benefits | € -100.000 | € 192.000 | € 192.000 | € 192.000 | € 476.000 |
ROI |
|
|
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| 229% |
Payback |
|
|
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| 7 months |
Maximize your ROI
The best next-generation firewall is just a router if you implement it with a security policy that allows: any-to-any. Your next-generation firewall has many capabilities to stop cyber threats, they have to be enabled and configured. Discover in the BPA with AIOps how you can maximize the effectiveness of your firewall and in the subscription overview what your next-generation firewall can do more for you to maximize your ROI.
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Take the next step.
Don't let an outdated or misconfigured firewall compromise your network's security. Contact your account manager today to schedule a consultation and learn how we can assist you in harnessing the power of Palo Alto Networks AIOps for your firewall. Together, we can ensure that your firewall is configured according to current security best practices, offering robust protection tailored to your organization's needs.