Together with the Aberdeen Group, FireMon released new research Operational Cost, Security Related Risk: Quantifying the Value of Network Security Policy Management.

The research found a surprising degree of complexity throughout the course of the analysis. The Aberdeen group reviewed 13,000 enterprises characterized by multiple sites and vendors as well as workloads in on-premise and public cloud environments. "For many enterprises, manual management of network security policies has become exceedingly complex, especially with the popularity of cloud-based deployments. Our analysis shows that the growing complexity of these environments is directly correlated with higher operational cost and increased security-related risk," states report author Derek E. Brink, vice president and research fellow, Aberdeen Group.

"Aberdeen's analysis shows how the automation, visibility, and integration provided by a network security policy management solution can deliver 4.3 times annual ROI in terms of operational cost savings, and about 2.5 times in terms of reducing the security-related risks of network slowdown or unplanned downtime," concludes Brink.

The independent research firm used a Monte Carlo Model to conduct the analysis. The report estimates the total business impact of managing network security policies manually can cost an organization up to a staggering $7.2 million per year. In contrast, organizations leveraging a security policy management solution can see a reduction in total business impact of about 400 percent, representing an annual ROI of about 7.5 times at the median.

They determined that organizations that invest in security policy management solutions can reap numerous benefits. The research highlights a reduction in the day-to-day burden on operational staff, improved accuracy by way of automation, increased flexibility and agility of hybrid on-premises / cloud-based IT infrastructure as well as the strategic reward of reduced security-related risks. 

The report summarizes three critical factors that drive efficiencies, security and cost savings:

• Automation - The automation of workflows for network security configuration changes and policy updates is increasingly essential. It provides a high level of assurance that important tasks are accurately and consistently carried out.
• Real-time visibility - Continuous real-time visibility into policies, rules, and configurations that are in place throughout network security infrastructure, on-premise and in the cloud, enabling centralized governance and management.
• Integration - Necessary integration with a wide range of network firewall products and application deployment models.
  

"This research confirms what our customers tell us every day - manually managing network security policy is a growing threat to business agility and security efficiency," said Charles Gold, Chief Marketing Officer of FireMon. "Our typical enterprise customer has to manage policy across hundreds of enforcement points from different vendors, spread over global networks in the cloud and on-premise.   Managing this manually is simply untenable."

The full report can be found here.