Forrester: Tufin Accelerates Innovation at a 144% ROI

Published July 18th, 2023 by Tufin

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Today‘s enterprises demand the ability to rapidly innovate and deploy applications without compromising on security. To that end, Tufin helps organizations manage and automate network access requests and application connectivity requirements as efficiently as possible to meet thebusiness needs of greater agility, productivity, and security.

Teams evaluating Tufin often want evidence that it will yield the desired outcomes and return oninvestment (ROI). That’s why we recently quantified the value of automated network security. Acommissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Tufin found that ournetwork security policy management solution leads to tangible benefits such as:

94% reduction in effort for network change analysis and implementation.
95% improvement in audit and reporting efficiency.
80% reduction in risk of vulnerability-related breaches.
75% reduction in application connectivity management effort.

“The top benefit we’ve experienced with Tufin is speed, which means that we fit into the company’s agile vision. If they want to deploy any application, all they have to do is access Tufinand make a request. Then, we can implement it in hours instead of weeks.” – Technical Lead for Security, Financial Services Company

All things considered, a composite organization with annual revenues of $15 billion, 200 firewalls, 25 network security engineers, 20 DevOps engineers, and strict compliance requirements saw returns of $8.78M over three years versus costs of $3.61M, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $5.17M and an ROI of 144%.

Companies choose Tufin to increase agility, strengthen security, and improve audit readiness

Companies choose Tufin because it is the market’s most advanced solution for managing security policy and network change processes. When evaluating potential solutions, specific pain points include:

Manual processes cause high SLAs for network access changes.
Lack of visibility increases risk and connectivity errors.
Manual approaches are inconsistent and error prone.
Complex workflows make it difficult to respond to audits.

In the Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) of Tufin report, interviewees noted that they relied on tribal knowledge, spreadsheets, and manual processes before embracing network automation. As a direct result of these pain points, Forrester’s research concluded that the primary reasons companies adopt Tufin are to:

Enable the business to deliver apps and services faster.
Strengthen security posture and enable more granular segmentation.
Automate network change workflows and policy management and reduce SLAs.
Gain a centralized view of the network topology and security policy configurations.

Tufin helps businesses deliver applications and services faster

Many network security professionals spend far too much time making application-related changes and diagnosing network connectivity problems, slowing down the pace of innovation and delivery. Tufin’s network change automation accelerates deployment by enabling teams to easily define, update, monitor, and remove applications and services from the network.

More specifically, Tufin helps network and IT teams identify configuration requirements earlier in the provisioning process — and with less manual effort — reducing errors and rework that had previously impacted delivery. The research concluded that Tufin reduced connectivity management effort by 75% for the composite organization, resulting in a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $715,000.

“My company is a financial institute, so we want to get products out as soon as possible. Without an automated tool, it is challenging because everything is manual.” – Technical Lead for Security, Financial Services Company

Tufin improves security posture and enables more granular segmentation

Security teams capitalize on Tufin’s automated risk features to better uphold corporate security policies and compliance requirements — and ultimately reduce the probability and impact of a successful breach. For example, these teams can use Tufin to analyze network traffic data, identify segmentation and security gaps, and take action to strengthen security policies.

The platform also helps teams surface risky and unused rules or network objects for cleanup and decommissioning, reducing attack vectors and improving overall security posture. Taking all of these factors into account, Forrester quantified an 80% reduction in risk of breach for the composite organization, leading to a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $3 million.

“Tufin shows us who has access to what and what rules we’re putting in place. We have definitions of zones and what should and shouldn’t be going between them. And Tufin tells us if we are in compliance or not. It basically goes through and shows that we’re enforcing our standards and compliance through these gates.” – Director of Cybersecurity Engineering, Financial Services Company

Tufin automates network change workflows and policy management and reduces SLAs

Using Tufin to centralize and automate network security processes such as change evaluation, implementation, and rule cleanup allows security teams to significantly improve efficiency. This yields time-savings which translate directly to cost-savings, as well as the freedom to reallocate resources to more strategic and high-value tasks. For example, the security team at a financial services organization used Tufin to free up bandwidth and avoid having to hire eight to 10 additional staff members to manage security requirements and policies.

Related to the speed of application and service deployment mentioned previously, Tufin helps teams reduce effort and SLAs for implementing network changes in order to accelerate business value. For instance, the technical lead for security at a financial services organization reduced their SLAs from weeks down to days. Per Forrester’s research, Tufin ultimately drove a 94% reduction in effort when analyzing, designing, and implementing access changes, which translated to a three-year, risk-adjusted total present value (PV) of $4.8 million.

“We don’t have to write the code, we don’t have to have it approved by another team member and we don’t have to schedule a change itself because provisioning has been taught and implemented into [Tufin].” – Firewall Team Lead, Financial Services Company

Tufin provides a centralized view of network topology and security policy configurations

Tufin centralizes network policy management and topology intelligence, improving operational efficiency and strengthening security posture while also facilitating easier reporting and audit preparedness. The platform documents adherence to regulations and internal policies, including the tracking of network change history, approvals, and exceptions.

The ability to automatically generate security attestation and other necessary documentation eliminates the need to manually collect information and organize reports for audits. In fact, the research found that Tufin enabled a 95% efficiency gain for reporting activities due to its centralized network security policy management and lightning-fast reporting capabilities, translating to a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $151,500.

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Tufin is the tool of choice for large enterprises looking to accelerate innovation and achieve full visibility, streamlined compliance, and powerful automation across complex, hybrid networks. In addition to maintaining a stronger security posture, the average enterprise sees an NPV of $5.17 million — an ROI of 144% — and a payback period of less than six months.

Interested in diving deeper into the figures and findings discussed above? Download the full Total Economic Impact of Tufin report.