Akamai reveals $9.6m benefit and 152% ROI from Guardicore use

Akamai Technologies has released a study conducted by Forrester Consulting, revealing significant benefits for organisations using its Guardicore Segmentation solution.

The study indicates that businesses implementing Akamai Guardicore Segmentation realised a total benefit of USD $9.6 million over a three-year period, achieving a 152% return on investment (ROI) with a payback period of under six months.

Key findings from the study include US$4.1 million recouped over three years through reduced downtime and improved revenue retention. Organisations reported a reduction in incident management efforts by 70% by the third year, which facilitated faster threat detection and response.

Ofer Wolf, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Security at Akamai, highlighted, "By implementing Akamai Guardicore Segmentation, organisations can reduce their incident management efforts, streamline operations to require fewer cybersecurity resources, and improve visibility and control — all while realising a 152% return on investment."

The study found that customers saved more than USD $2.9 million by reducing or eliminating the need for traditional firewalls and legacy systems. This shift allowed organisations to manage firewalls more efficiently and enhance network visibility.

Study respondents highlighted additional unquantified benefits such as improved integration with existing security tools like SIEM and EDR, and increased job satisfaction among cybersecurity professionals due to enhanced productivity within IT teams.

One of the attractive features of Guardicore Segmentation cited was the ability to deploy quickly using out-of-the-box templates while allowing for policy customisation over time.

A Director of IT Security in healthcare services stated, "The biggest benefit [of Guardicore] is having more security resilience to avoid security incidents and cyberattacks. And that's due to enhanced visibility."

Moreover, an Infosec Director in financial services emphasised, "Is Guardicore worth it? It's all about compartmentalising and segmentation... The benefits of automated discovery and visualisation are paramount."

In the words of the Head of Infrastructure at a software company, "We had a security breach in 2023. Post recovery, we needed to increase the overall security posture of the organisation. One of [the goals was to enhance] network segmentation to prevent lateral movement. That's what led us to select Guardicore."

An Infosec Officer within the specialty manufacturing sphere mentioned, "What tilted things in favour of Guardicore? Legacy operating system support was one of the big ones that some of the [competing products] did not support. The other piece was the scalability and visibility, as well as the ease of the learning period through enforcement."

The methodology of the study involved interviewing five representatives with experience using Akamai Guardicore Segmentation. These experiences were aggregated into a single composite organisation, reflecting the potential financial impact of the deployment within a global company with US$1 billion in annual revenue and 5,000 employees across multiple locations.