The proof is in for CISOs, CFOs and network security pros. Palo Alto Networks VM-Series virtual firewalls pay for themselves, and now you can get all the details about significant 115% return on investment (ROI) over three years with a six-month payback period in a just-released Forrester Consulting study. You’ll discover how these virtualized instances of our ML-Powered Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) can provide savings measured in millions of dollars over a short period of time.
This in-depth analysis of security efficiency and cost-effectiveness is meant for all enterprise stakeholders concerned about safeguarding digital transformation and cloud migration efforts. Detailed financial modeling charts explain how the VM-Series provides quantifiable value by substantially increasing security capabilities and streamlining operations.
See Cost Avoidance Measured in Seven Figures
![Key statistics showing 115% ROI and $1.83M NPV](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/word-image-18.png)
Extensive surveying, in-depth interviews, and deep financial analysis paints a picture of security that pays off. To understand real-world challenges and needs, Forrester Consulting used this study’s research to build a model of a composite organization, which obtains a net present value (NPV) of $1.83 million over three years by deploying VM-Series across multiple on-prem and public cloud environments to secure both north-south and east-west traffic.
These benefits stem from significant operational efficiencies and exceptional network security capabilities. VM-Series firewalls offer a broad range of capabilities that transcend today’s network security challenges across public and private clouds, virtualized data centers and software-defined branch locations.
High-Performance Security Slices Fixed Costs
![90% reduction in firewall deployment time](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/word-image-19.png)
Advanced security capabilities are a significant factor in the financial value of VM-Series virtual firewalls. As the study details, organizations using the virtualized NGFW were able to achieve:
- 90% reduction in time required to deploy firewalls, as well as improved network and security team efficiencies by 80%.
- 30% reduction in time to achieve proper security posture, which gave security teams a head start on delivering a Zero Trust Enterprise (something that’s not possible with point solutions).
- 20% decrease of data breach likelihood after three years, which further allowed organizations to deliver the Zero Trust Enterprise model and apply consistent security policies across the entire organization.
- 18% reduction in the number of security incidents requiring manual investigation and a subsequent 25% decrease in mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR).
After investment in VM-Series virtual firewalls (designed to protect against up to 95% of unknown file and web-based threats instantly) organizations were able to fully address the network security challenges of their hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Security teams could easily deploy advanced threat prevention controls and define, enforce and manage consistent security policies from a single console. With significantly improved visibility, they were able to gain precise control over inbound, outbound and east-west traffic to greatly reduce attack surfaces.
Operational Efficiencies Cover the Entire Organization
![67% reduction in user time.](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/word-image-20.png)
Security is only as good as its ability to cover the entire enterprise. Forrester discovered significant efficiencies with VM-Series firewalls. These benefits were not just for network security teams, but also for their colleagues in other business areas. As you’ll read in the study, those benefits included:
- 67% decrease in downtime per employee, so only 6% of an organization’s employees experience a downtime event, compared to 18% in a legacy state.
- 45% reduction in downtime length: Downtime events at the composite organization historically lasted an average of 4.5 hours. After deploying VM-Series firewalls, this average declines by two hours.
The VM-Series virtual form-factor also allowed organizations the flexibility to automate firewall deployment and provisioning, and scale with demand, which eliminated numerous over-provisioning costs.
Make Securing Digital Transformation Seamless
Find out why 92% of Forrester survey respondents said VM-Series virtual firewalls and accompanying cloud-delivered security services improved their organizations’ management, admin and operation efforts on cybersecurity. Download the study and see for yourself, or ask us for a personalized VM-Series demo.