The widespread adoption of multi-cloud and hybrid infrastructures has brought new complexities to the cloud regions of many companies. With this complexity comes a broader attack surface for potential data thieves. Sophisticated ransomware attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in cloud infrastructure are on the rise, as are supply chain attacks targeting third-party software. Cyber attackers move at lightning speed in the cloud, and due to the emergence of generative AI, their attacks are increasing in number, speed, and sophistication. To address these emerging risks, organizations of all sizes can unify their security and compliance, from code to runtime, in hybrid and multi-cloud environments with an integrated, AI-powered Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) and better defend themselves against cloud threats. .
Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft's integrated CNAPP, delivers end-to-end security and compliance from code to runtime, powered by generative AI and threat intelligence to help you secure your hybrid and multi-cloud environments. With Defender for Cloud, organizations can support secure development, reduce risk with contextual situation management, and protect workloads and applications from modern threats in a unified security operations (SecOps) experience.
Not only does Defender for Cloud transcend traditional security silos and scale end-to-end security across multi- and hybrid cloud infrastructure, it also provides advanced security posture management and threat remediation capabilities. In order to demonstrate the business benefits of this solution, Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study. The study aims to provide business leaders and decision-makers with a robust framework within which they can evaluate the benefits and potential financial impact of Defender for Cloud on their organizations.
Over the course of the study, interviewees reported experiencing a wide range of benefits related to Defender for Cloud, including reduced operational risk, a compressed and more secure development lifecycle, reduced time to investigate threats and faster remediation.
Overall, the study found that the benefits of Defender for Cloud amount to a significant net present value (NPV) of $4.25 million over three years. But this is not the whole story. Here are some other key points mentioned by people interviewed by Forrester.
“(Defender for Cloud) just removes the weird stuff that's happening on our network that ends up in the cybersecurity office. We've probably already reduced about 60% of the workload, and a lot of that is around false positives, so I can get better data.” “The systems are evaluating the data correctly… and I won't even give it to the analyst. I'll shut down.”
—CTO, Life Sciences
Defender for Cloud has been shown to report 50% fewer false positives than legacy security solutions. At the same time, the solution reduced the time to investigate and remediate legitimate threats by 30%. Because of these dramatic improvements, study participants avoided an average of 36,000 hours of investigation and treatment. By reallocating $796,000 of SecOps labor to proactive threat scanning and other high-value activities, companies were able to further improve their security performance.
2. Improving the productivity of the Security Operations Center (SOC).
“(With Defender for Cloud), if the tools are configured correctly, (global) efficiencies in your SOC can potentially reach 30% for a finely tuned environment.”
– Technical Director of Business Programs
By expanding the number and types of workloads protected by Defender for Cloud, participating companies saw an average 30% improvement in SecOps productivity. This enhancement was a combination of consolidating redundant multi-cloud security policies, replacing patching and other similar time-consuming actions with automation, and embracing the efficiency gains of a better integrated Microsoft ecosystem. Financially, these productivity gains translate into savings of $5.6 million over three years.
3. Low total cost of ownership
“(Without Defender for Cloud), it would be more complicated. It would cost us twice as much to maintain (our multi-cloud security stack).”
— Cyber Defense Commander, Materials
Interviewees reported that Defender for Cloud reduced licensing costs by 10% compared to legacy security solutions. This savings comes from eliminating licensing and management costs associated with five legacy security solutions over three years – made possible by the breadth of workloads protected by Defender for Cloud. Interviewees also reported a 1,700-hour reduction in security stack administrative work thanks to their ability to consolidate workloads across their multi-cloud infrastructures. Together, these modifications resulted in cost savings of more than $1 million.
4. More comprehensive coverage of cyber threats and prioritization
“Microsoft catches 10% of real incidents (that are not caught by other deployed solutions), reducing our attack surface by 10%.”
– Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Technology
Defender for Cloud detected 10% more legitimate cyber threats than the previous security environments study participants were using, on average. Each of these threats required a response and could have been missed. Interviewees identified incidents where they previously lacked the ability to address a mix of increasingly complex and overlapping cyber threats that included, but were not limited to, runtime container risks, over-provisioning of container privileges, malware, and phishing efforts. Social engineering, shadow IT. Not only did Defender for Cloud identify these incidents, it provided greater context surrounding them, improving threat prioritization and avoiding $292,000 in costs related to data breaches.
5. Lower compliance costs
“(Defender for Cloud) is able to save (my organization) up to 5% of engineering overhead around (audit and compliance) meetings and collaboration.”
— CISO, Technology
With Defender for Cloud, participating organizations reduce their compliance costs. Audit fees were avoided and compliance meeting schedules were streamlined, reducing reliance on external audit services. Over three years, the average savings associated with these process improvements was $857,000, representing a 15% reduction in audit compliance overhead.
Microsoft Defender for the Cloud features
Overall, the Forrester study found that Defender for Cloud significantly enhanced security, compliance, and operational efficiency for every company participating in the TEI study. Through representative interviews and financial analysis, Forrester determined that the composite organization with the overall benefits for study participants received $8.52 million in financial benefits over three years. Weighing these benefits against $4.27 million in costs over the same period, Forrester determined that Defender for Cloud represents a net present value (NPV) of $4.25 million.
The study's interviewees went beyond the financial benefits in their praise of Defender for Cloud. After adopting the solution, participants saw a reduction in risk and improvements in security and compliance across the board. Even as the regulatory and compliance landscape shifted beneath their feet, these organizations were better able to use the added context of Microsoft's cloud security standards to stay on solid ground—and stay compliant when others were not.
Additionally, interviewees indicated that Defender for Cloud helped them collaborate more securely with their technology partners and create more secure and efficient software development pipelines. Interviewees emphasized that these will have other benefits in the future as well, including reduced development times, improved time to value, and ultimately greater potential for business growth.
He learns more
To learn more about the business value of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, explore the Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Defender for Cloud study for further analysis and findings, as well as the perspectives of Defender for Cloud users interviewed in the study. Also register for Forrester's webinar on top cloud security trends, key considerations, and determining the business value of CNAPP.
Learn more about Microsoft Cloud Security solutions.
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