As organizations increasingly rely on cloud services for their operations, the need for effective cloud security has become a top priority. In a recent cloud security report, 49% of the survey responders identified cloud firewalls as their primary defensive measure, emphasizing the value of cloud network security solutions as a foundational layer to protect cloud assets and workloads.

When considering security solutions, security engineers often focus on evaluating security efficacy, while CISOs and C-level executives are more concerned with factors such as ROI, organizational risk, and business continuity. Interestingly, these considerations are highly correlated, because security efficacy has a large impact on the ROI of your cloud security.

As a trusted security advisor to over 100,000 organizations worldwide, Check Point is excited to introduce our online ROI calculator for CloudGuard Network Security to help customers assess the value of cloud network security solutions. The calculator is based on a Forrester study and allows organizations to estimate the potential costs and benefits of implementing our solution over a three-year period, based on their specific inputs.

This article will provide some background about the Forrester study and explain how to use the online ROI calculator, together with tips, tricks and caveats,

What is the Forrester Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) of CloudGuard Network Security?

Forrester conducted a TEI study to examine the potential return on investment enterprises may realize by deploying CloudGuard Network Security.

Firstly, Forrester created a financial model of the costs, benefits, and risks. It then validated the model using a CloudGuard Network Security customer – a large US-based healthcare provider using Check Point network Security on-premises and using CloudGuard to secure their AWS and Azure deployments, using 300 virtual cloud firewall cores. You can see some of the findings below, where over 3 years the customer generated 169% Return on Investment and their payback period was less than 3 months.

Executive summary of the Forrester TEI study

How does the ROI calculator work?

When designing the ROI calculator, we tried to consider the best balance between simplicity and control. If the calculator is too complicated, some users may give up without achieving any benefit. At the same time, we wanted to ensure that other users are able to have more granular control over the calculations. As a result, we created a set of basic parameters (to suit a first-time user), as well as a set of advanced parameters (to suit a more advanced user). All parameters have default values which you can change. However you use the calculator and whichever parameters you change, you will always have a final calculation in the graph on the right side of the calculator. You can click on “SHOW ADVANCED” under the graph for more details of the cash-flow analysis, and it is relatively easy to see how each changed parameter affects the cash-flow calculation and the ROI analysis.

The parameters are divided into four tabs or steps:

  • Your Cloud
  • Your Team
  • Your Cost
  • Calculator Parameters
  1. Your Cloud

The first tab reviews your cloud providers and related information.

The more cloud providers that you use, the greater the complexity for your IT and security teams, and the higher the security risk. A unified security management platform will save you operational effort and money, especially in the productivity of your security teams. The Forrester study calls this benefit “Productivities from single solution”.

Step 1: Parameters for Your Cloud

From the Forrester study:

  • “CloudGuard manages the communications to the cloud services while allowing one set of controls through the user interface. This allows an organization to create and maintain a single policy where multiple policies would be required if working with individual cloud services.”
  • “CloudGuard leverages cloud configurations (asset tags, objects, and security groups) in the creation and maintenance of policies. In the cloud, existing policies can commonly be used, versus creating a new one. Having fewer policies reduces maintenance, which is even more beneficial in dynamically changing cloud environments.”
  1. Your Team

The second tab collects information about your security engineers and your developers and has an influence on the benefit that Forrester study calls “Time savings for developers for application development and rework”.

Step 2: Parameters for Your Team

The Forrester study outlines the benefits to the CloudGuard customer’s developers, including:

  • “CloudGuard provides security guardrails for developers while still giving them an environment where they can develop.”
  • “The ability to standardize and keep development cloud-agnostic from a security perspective simplifies development.”
  • “Developer rework, which was previously quite frequent, is almost nonexistent today.”

This tab also influences the benefit of “Avoided cost of compliance and audits”, if you are planning to use the Security Compliance technology (or “Blade”). From the Forrester study:

  • “The interviewee shared: ‘When someone pushes out a new rule, we get alerts and run compliance reports to makes sure that we are in line. That makes our lives a lot easier.’”
  1. Your Cost

The third tab helps to calculate the estimated costs of using CloudGuard Network Security over three years. The number of cloud firewalls and virtual cores you plan to use is particularly important.

Step 3: Parameters for Your Cost

  1. Calculator Parameters

The last tab includes various additional parameters, including the average breach cost. We have provided two industry standards, as well as the option for you to provide your own value, which may be influenced by your industry vertical, company revenue or additional factors.

I previously referred to the correlation between security efficacy and ROI. A higher catch rate of malware and other threats translates into a higher ROI due to reduced probability of a breach, as well as reduced impact of a breach if it occurs.

Step 4: Calculator Parameters

From the Forrester study: “The customer had issues with specific built-in native cloud security capabilities as well as there being an inability to manage security across clouds efficiently and without redundancy. The capability and management gaps could lead to an increase in both the probability and size of breaches.”

The Forrester TEI financial model also includes risk adjustment variables, which it uses to adjust benefits downward and adjust costs upwards.

Tips, Tricks and Caveats

  • Before you start to use the ROI calculator, you should have some estimate of the number of cloud firewalls and virtual cores you may deploy to secure your cloud deployments. Without this number, it is very difficult to perform a reasonable ROI analysis. If you’re not sure, please feel free to contact us or schedule a workshop with a cloud security expert – the links are below.
  • The online calculator is based only on the Forrester TEI study. Because it follows the logic and business model of a leading industry analyst, we are not able to make changes to the calculator’s business logic without straying from the Forrester financial model.
  • It is important to note that this ROI calculator compares the ROI of an organization using CloudGuard Network Security to the organization using cloud provider services and without using other cloud firewalls. For an apples-to-apples comparison between the costs and benefits of using CloudGuard Network vs. another cloud firewall (for example, AWS Network Firewall or Azure Firewall), please contact your Check Point cloud expert, Check Point channel partner, or contact us using the link provided below.
  • The ROI graph (on the right side) and the advanced cash-flow analysis (below the graph) are only a small part of the full analysis. For a much more detailed explanation, please download the customized report.
  • Additionally, the online calculator doesn’t save any parameters or data that you enter. The parameters are only used on your local browser and are not sent to Check Point in any way. As a result, you are recommended to download the customized report before leaving the calculator webpage.

Summary

This article introduced the online ROI calculator for CloudGuard Network Security, and provided some background on how it is based on a Forrester Total Economic Impact study, which was conducted one a CloudGuard Network Security customer. It also explained how the calculator works and how to use it, and provided some tips, tricks and caveats about how best to use it.

Next Steps

Firstly, read the Forrester TEI study. This will provide you with an understanding of the Forrester ROI model.

Secondly, take a test drive of the online calculator. (If you don’t have an estimate about the number of virtual cores needed, schedule a discussion with a cloud expert from Check Point or a channel partner who will help you with the initial estimate, and may also help you to design a secure cloud deployment.)

Finally, make sure to download the customized report from the calculator, so you can keep a record of the results as well as the parameters you used.

If you have any feedback about the calculator, please reach out to your Check Point account team or contact us.

For more information about CloudGuard Network Security, or if you are in the process of designing a secure cloud deployment, please schedule a demo and a cloud security expert will help to understand your needs.

To replay technical webinars about how to use CloudGuard Network Security to solve different security use cases with different public and private cloud deployments, please see here.

If you would like to schedule a personalized technical workshop around best practices for secure cloud migration or CloudGuard Network Security, please fill in this form and a cloud security architect will contact you to discuss your concerns and schedule next steps.

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