5 tips to calculate the value of network risk reduction

Assessing your network risks is key to making the right business decisions; it pays to be efficient and aware of the variables

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As your business is growing and you scale your network infrastructure, you are likely adding a lot of new security and monitoring tools. In this process, it is worth considering whether you are getting the value out of these investments. Are you getting true network visibility? Are they reducing threats and network risks? What kind of ROI are you getting?  

Assessing your network risks in this way is key to making the right business decisions. Let’s call it Visibility Economics. And like any economic system, it pays to be efficient and aware of the variables. Below are five tips on how to determine your network risk and correctly size your visibility layer while assessing ROI. 

Tip 1: Assess your current network and IT situation

Here’s a hypothetical. Imagine that your customer needs are increasing, that there is a strong movement to the cloud and that security threats are on the rise. At the same time, you have outgrown your network infrastructure and are considering an expansion. Obviously, you’d want to be smart about the transition.

Whether you end up choosing to move to the cloud — be it public or private — adopting a hybrid model, or continuing to expand your on-premise infrastructure, it will be important to understand:

  • What are your network visibility risks?
  • How to tell if you need a visibility architecture upgrade?
  • What kind of return you can expect if you make that purchase?

Only by taking this analytical look at the savings and ROI from each spending choice will you ensure that every dollar is effectively spent.

Tip 2: Associate economics with your business expansion

It’s become well understood that with the rise of Internet of Things (IoT) and shift to the cloud comes increasing complexity within enterprise networks. Visibility is compromised and proper management becomes nearly impossible. In fact, a recent survey found that enterprises experience a “loss of control over network data” instigated by a lack of full visibility. Their top concern: the state of security with cloud adoption. While going to the cloud may save you on CAPEX, being able to monitor and secure it may increase your OPEX if things hit the fan.

In the process, an ROI calculator can help reduce complex decisions into a simple formula. You can look at the attributes of your network and assess cost savings against reductions in network downtime, speed of new tool implementation, and lower mean times to repair due to reduced troubleshooting time. These factors all help quantify your ROI, along with less intangible benefits such as agility, lost opportunities and speed of strategy execution.

Tip 3: Plan your network infrastructure growth

When it comes to network technology purchases, whether security tools, analytics tools, compliance or network expansion, there is a continuous wave of “new” and “cool” resources that will give you better insight or save you money. Some you buy because it makes sense and some because of “executive whim,” but all need to be fed from the same infrastructure. And it is not uncommon for products and appliances to mask hidden expenses that only appear in the long run when they’re cobbled together like this.

So how do you figure out these costs and complexities that are reducing economies of scale due to fragmented monitoring architectures? The first step is to understand what and where your risks lie and how a right-sized network visibility architecture can help shrink your short- and long-term savings. Understand where you have risk, what it takes to reduce it, and what that reduced risk will save you. That sits at the heart of any good visibility economics calculator.   

Tip 4: Know your short- and long-term benefits

Once you understand your network visibility risk, the elements you need to add to your network to reduce it, and the possible savings --  you can estimate your ROI. In addition to reduced downtime and troubleshooting time, other factors will play into your visibility economics such as:

  • Scalability issues and cost of system maintenance
  • Impact of network blind spots when troubleshooting
  • Higher costs to manage and maintain monitoring and security applications
  • Longer time to reconfigure when adding or changing network equipment
  • Increased possibility of security breaches

It is essential to recognize these costs and risks while making sure they are accounted for in your visibility economics calculation. Being more secure is obviously important, but it is the savings in day-to-day operations that will have the biggest sway internally when it comes to budgeting for any network infrastructure change.

Tip 5: Be analytical from the outset

It is not only possible to assess the ROI of a network visibility upgrade, it is possible to estimate the number of days it will take to break even on that investment based on a small number of factors. Understanding a business’ industry, the number of employees, network segments and cloud services is all that is needed to estimate network risk areas and determine what might be needed. From there, with a few more network configuration details you can estimate both a visibility upgrade ROI and number of break-even days. 


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network risks monitoring security

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