EMERYVILLE, Calif. -- Large enterprises can slash up to $5 million per year off of their IT costs by implementing an automated security configuration management (SCM) solution, according to a benchmark study by Aberdeen Group. The study, Automated Security Configuration: Calculating a Real ROI?, creates an independent, industry-standard ROI model for businesses considering SCM solutions.
Sponsored by BigFix® Inc. as part of its IT.Next program, the Aberdeen Group study examined the return on investment (ROI) of SCM technologies for three different business types: large enterprises, medium enterprises, and small-to-medium businesses (SMBs). In all cases, cost savings were 75 percent or greater, ROI was achieved in five months or less, and the number of full-time employees assigned to these tasks was drastically reduced.
As shown in the table below, the Aberdeen Group model was applied to use cases (assuming varying degrees of pre-existing automation and software) to illustrate projected ROI:
Table 1:
| Large Enterprises | Mid-Size Enterprises | SMBs | |
| Number of endpoints | 45,000 | 5,000 | 500 |
| Total annual savings | $5,031,386 | $1,076,220 | $371,203 |
| ROI payback period (months) | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Equivalent full-time employee labor savings | 40 | 6 | 3 |
According to Aberdeen Group, labor costs have always represented a large proportion of operational IT budgets, but leveraging solutions that improve efficiency through automation will significantly reduce those costs.
Finding real ROI in security has historically been a challenge. By comparing the automation of SCM processes with the real-world labor costs of carrying out those same functions, we were able to create a formula to calculate the ROI for security functions, said Carol Baroudi, Research Director at Aberdeen Group. The ROI model should provide an invaluable tool for IT executives in creating a business case to budget holders when seeking funds for the implementation of SCM solutions.
