The Cisco Defending Against Critical Threats Report makes an interesting point about the role of a defender has not fundamentally changed over the  years.  There are still bad actors, still known and unknown vulnerabilities to patch or mitigate against, still concerns around human error introducing opportunities for exploitation.

What has changed is the speed of digital business, digital transformation; whatever term you choose to call it.  Business leadership at your customers want the ability to exploit emerging business opportunities at a competitive speed and bring differentiating solutions from concept to deployment at the speed that customers, partners, and employees expect it.  This translates to a broader and evolving landscape to protect.  As a Cisco security partner, this creates an opportunity for new growth and profitability as your customers embrace secure digital transformation for their business.

To deliver on the belief that security is a business enabler -it's important to deliver new capabilities to support customer's expanding security needs.  That's especially important for core foundational technologies like firewalls.  They must evolve to support changing environments.  Cisco continues to innovate the Secure Firewall product family, releasing many compelling features in the last few releases:  containers support, workload-aware firewalling, encrypted traffic visibility and control, Snort 3, policy efficiency and performance enhancements, plus enhancements to our public cloud provider and VPN support to name a few.

Cisco wanted a way to quantify the business value we provided with our firewalls, not only for new Secure Firewall customers deploying the latest release but also existing FTD (Firewall Threat Defense) and ASA (Adaptive Security Appliance) customers looking to migrate and/or upgrade to support network changes and new business opportunities.  To do that, we commissioned Forrester Consulting to perform an unbiased cost-benefit analysis to measure the operational efficiency and threat efficacy realized by Cisco firewall customers, to provide a comprehensive view of the value of their technology purchase   The result is an independent 3rd party analysis of the business value of Secure Firewall -The Forrester Total Economic Impact Study of Cisco Secure Firewall.

Some highlights of the TEI study results show that after deploying Cisco Secure Firewall and Firewall Management Center, customers experienced the following:

Firewall management efficiency enabled faster policy creation, deployment, and updates.

• A reduction of 55 hours of labor per firewall
• Time savings of 90% for policy updates over quarterly basis
• Virtual firewall policies are updated 80% faster

Security workflow improvements from unified firewall and threat data results in better detection and response.

• 49%-time savings previously spent investigating suspicious activity
• 83%-time savings previously spent responding to threats
• Adding SecureX with FMC reduces these figures by an additional 77%; a total time savings of up to 90%

Reduced risk of a data breach and productivity loss from improved threat visibility and automation

• 90% reduction in data breach risk
• 70% of employee's lost productivity from breaches was recovered
• Adding SecureX with FMC helped to reduce breach risk by an additional 23%

After accounting for initial and recurring costs, risk-adjusting for realistic and conservative estimates, Forrester analysis found that an investment in Cisco Secure Firewall and Firewall Management Center could produce a 195% ROI,$12.29M net present value, and 10-month payback period over three years.

This study is an important tool for partners to utilize in firewall conversations with customers, both prospects and existing Cisco.  For prospects, the TEI study measures the long-term value existing Cisco firewall customers achieve from new feature releases and advancements.  For existing Cisco customers looking to migrate/upgrade their current deployment, the TEI study quantifies the business value of Cisco Secure Firewall.

Additional tools to help you build a profitable and differentiated security practice include:

• Cisco Secure Firewall Migration tool: Migrate easily to Cisco Secure Firewall using this desktop tool.
• Win with Cisco Secure Firewall One-Pager: Access programs & tools to help you win with Cisco Secure Firewall. Achieve the highest profitability when you migrate existing customers and displace competitors.
• Secure Firewall YouTube channel: A centralized video hub for configuration best practices, step by step guides, new feature highlights.
• Secure Firewall Essentials portal: A centralized hub for configuration best practices, step by step guides, new feature highlights
• Partner Firestarter Portal: Get help from a dedicated team of Cisco Security experts for any of your business escalations, migration support, technical support, or feature requests.

-----

You can learn more about innovations with our Cisco Secure Firewall as well as updates across our portfolio and see how you can help customers be more resilient by joining us for our Cisco Secure Partner Insights Forum on April 21st entitled, Security Resilience. Together.

Register Today!

We'd love to hear what you think. Ask a Question, Comment Below, and Stay Connected with#CiscoPartners on social!

Cisco Partners Facebook  |  @CiscoPartners Twitter  |  Cisco Partners LinkedIn|  @CiscoPartners Twitter  |  Cisco Partners LinkedIn