Microsoft Zero Trust solutions deliver 92 percent return on investment, says new Forrester study

In the last two years, we’ve seen a staggering increase in the adoption of cloud-based services, remote work solutions, bring your own device (BYOD), and IoT devices as organizations digitally transform themselves to enable a hybrid workforce.¹ Zero Trust has become the essential security strategy for successfully preventing data breaches and mitigating risk in today’s complex cybersecurity landscape.

Implementing a Zero Trust security strategy, however, is a significant undertaking that requires in-depth planning, cross-company collaboration, and resources. Organizations need solutions that simplify and accelerate the adoption of Zero Trust by offering flexibility, integration, and a meaningful return on investment.

In the commissioned study The Total Economic Impact^TM of Zero Trust solutions from Microsoft, Forrester Consulting reports that adoption of Microsoft solutions to implement a Zero Trust security strategy delivers:

• A three-year 92 percent return on investment (ROI) with a payback period of fewer than six months.  
• A 50 percent lower chance of a data breach. 
• Numerous efficiency gains of 50 percent or higher across security processes.

To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester Consulting interviewed eight decision-makers with experience using Microsoft Security solutions to implement a Zero Trust security strategy. These customers were able to improve their security posture, reduce costs, achieve greater business agility, and increase efficiency in managing security. 

Improved security posture 

Data breaches can be incredibly costly as organizations work to recover their environment and brand reputation. Forrester found that by adopting Microsoft security solutions for their Zero Trust strategy, organizations were able to reduce not only the risk of a breach but also the potential for regulatory violations. Customers also reported significant improvements in their security postures since beginning their journeys, a reduction of shadow IT, and increased compliance by meeting various regulatory requirements. 

Enhanced security reduced the risk of a data breach by 50 percent. Improved authentication, network, and endpoint security protocols coupled with increased visibility into the network allowed organizations to better protect themselves from data breaches. And with network segmentation, financial losses were contained in the event of a breach.

“[Implementing strong authentication strategies has] allowed us to provide our employees with a better, more secure environment.”—Principal Architect, Logistics

Reduced cost 

A comprehensive adoption of Zero Trust involves a significant transformation of the entire security strategy—and with it, a restructuring of costs. By eliminating legacy systems and improving processes, organizations uncover significant cost savings opportunities across the entire cybersecurity organization.  

With Microsoft Security solutions, customers were able to simplify their security strategy and retire unnecessary legacy software and infrastructure, resulting in cost savings of over USD7 million. This eliminates redundant security solutions delivered on average a $20 per employee per month savings.

Process efficiencies also led to cost savings. Calls placed to IT and help desk analysts decreased by 50 percent over a three-year period. The mean time to resolve (MTTR) per inquiry also decreased by 15 percent, leading to a total net present value (NPV) of USD1,773,095 over the three years. In addition, advanced audit and discovery capabilities in the Microsoft solution stack reduced the resources required for audit and compliance management by 25 percent, saving USD2 million NPV.

Greater business agility  

A simplified security architecture through Zero Trust improves business agility. Through efficient system management and user access, organizations can move quickly to pursue business opportunities, and support remote work while managing risk.

Microsoft Security solutions reduced the effort required to provision and secure new infrastructure by 80 percent through automated provisioning of new systems, from SQL servers to virtual machines for new applications. The time required to provision new infrastructure went from several months to days. Meanwhile, workers improved their productivity through better access. Frontline workers gained efficient access to business-critical applications and systems of record, saving them an average of 30 minutes per week.  

With many of the Microsoft solutions that support Zero Trust available on a software as a service (SaaS) basis, organizations can quickly expand or contract their environment without needing to purchase additional hardware or dedicate resources to implement changes. 

“[Using Microsoft security solutions] has allowed us to focus more on our future as opposed to worrying about infrastructure.”—Identity Engineer, Manufacturing 

Efficient security management  

Most organizations dedicate too much time to triaging, investigating, and remediating alerts. A simplified Zero Trust security framework can reduce management time, both by cutting down the number of security incidents and by improving security response. 

Customers that had implemented Microsoft’s Zero Trust security framework reported a 50 percent reduction in management time due to improved security processes. Security teams were able to provision and secure new infrastructure 80 percent more quickly and accelerate the process to set up users on new devices. They were able to more quickly remediate security issues using built-in automation in Microsoft solutions such as Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), and Microsoft 365 Defender.

“Azure AD has definitely allowed us to become more agile. We can make changes on a dime. Whereas, with our legacy system, product changes were far more cumbersome and painful. With our previous identity and access management (IAM) solution, we often had to write custom code and update our IAM solution across multiple data centers [and] then troubleshoot any problems. With Azure AD, everything is handled by Microsoft. This has allowed us to free up some of our resources and dedicate them to migrating our remaining applications to Azure AD.”—Principal Architect of Technical Services, Logistics Firm

Embrace proactive security with the Microsoft Zero Trust framework 

Zero Trust is the essential security strategy in today’s hybrid work environment. A complicated IT landscape of remote and group office users introduces more digital attack surfaces and risk, as perimeters are increasingly fluid. With security products and services that verify explicitly, grant least privileged access, and assume breaches, the Microsoft Zero Trust framework supports a proactive, integrated approach to security across all layers of the digital estate. We look forward to continuing to serve and protect our customers with a comprehensive Zero Trust strategy and solutions.

Learn more

• Read our Zero Trust position paper for key insights, an example of a comprehensive security architecture, and a maturity model to help accelerate your adoption. 

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

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¹ New insights on cybersecurity in the age of hybrid work, Bret Arsenault, Microsoft Security, Microsoft. 27 October 2021.

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