As businesses continue to march towards a hybrid infrastructure, one of the biggest challenges facing modern enterprises is how to deliver a consistent security posture within the data center that stops sophisticated attacks and integrates seamlessly with the rest of the increasingly complex network. This new reality is driving many IT teams to reconsider how they manage risk and complexity in the data center as they continue to support work-from-anywhere environments.

Data center firewall features like advanced functionality, applicability to critical use cases, security efficacy, and total cost of ownership can vary widely depending on model and vendor. With the multitude of companies all spouting performance metrics, it can be perplexing to choose the right solution for your environment. This is especially true because most providers shy away from discussing the time it takes to recoup the upfront investment.

Fortinet commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a "Total Economic Impact? (TEI) study" to examine the cost savings and business benefits of deploying FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) and FortiGuard AI-Powered Security Services within the data center to help customers make an informed purchasing decision when choosing how to protect their critical business assets. The study provides economic metrics around benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks that further assist organizations in evaluating data center firewall solutions-including that Fortinet delivered 318% return on investment (ROI) and payback within 6 months.

What is the Forrester TEI?

Fortinet commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a TEI study to examine the potential ROI enterprises may realize by deploying Fortinet Data Center NGFWs and services. This study focused exclusively on FortiGate NGFW and FortiGuard AI-Powered Security Services for the data center.

Forrester interviewed five customers and aggregated the results to build a composite organization that is industry agnostic with an annual revenue of$2.5 billion, 15,000+ employees, and at least three data centers.

Significant Improvements Across Security, Performance, and Cost Savings

The TEI study found that within three years Fortinet data center firewalls and services delivered significant improvements to networking and security performance as well as increased networking and security team efficiencies, end-user productivity gains, and solution cost savings when compared to previous NGFW firewall deployments.

Interviewees noted that one of the biggest issues they faced prior to using Fortinet NGFWs for the data center was managing a multitude of firewall solutions from various vendors in their environments. This approach left organizations exposed to an expanding attack surface and inefficient processes; made it challenging to maintain and upgrade firewalls; and often disrupted daily business operations. Because Fortinet NGFWs for the data center converge networking and security, they allowed the interviewees' organizations to consolidate their various firewall solutions into a single, comprehensive offering; augment talent gaps; and gain clearer visibility across their network infrastructures.

318% ROI with less than six months of payback

Deploying Fortinet NGFW and services in the data center delivered a significant 318% ROI over three years, with payback in less than six months. These benefits were driven by a 90% reduction in the time Full Time Employees (FTEs) spent on manual updates and fixes-worth more than$1.2 million over three years. IT teams using FortiGate firewalls in the data center also had a 50% reduction in device reimaging and a 95% reduction in ancillary device connections. They were able to reallocate that time toward other valuable activities.

$5.4M in networking and security improvements

FortiGate NGFWs improved networking and security performance thanks to FortiGuard AI-Powered Security Services that enable fast detection and enforcement across the entire attack surface. The composite organization improved networking and security performance worth$5.4 million over three years.  

40% savings compared to previous NGFW solution costs

FortiGate NGFWs for the data center are 40% more cost-effective than the composite organization's legacy appliance and services solutions. Over the course of three years, this adds up to more than$2.6 million in total savings for the composite organization.

Other Benefits

Improved security posture

Security posture improved because FortiGuard AI-Powered Security Services provide real-time protection against known and unknown threats. Fortinet data center firewalls have clear visibility into the threat landscape and are able to protect against and mitigate potential attacks that would lead to severe financial and reputational impacts on the organization.

Improved visibility and network reliability

Fortinet offers simplified, centralized management for network infrastructure, improving visibility for IT teams and reducing network-related management, maintenance, and monitoring costs. Firmware updates take less time and are more reliable, and configurations, testing, and training require fewer resources and present fewer challenges.

Improved sustainability

Fortinet firewalls are powered by purpose-built security processing units (SPUs) designed to deliver high performance that improves and maintains sustainability efforts and ultimately reduces overall power consumption in data centers.

Responsive customer support

Fortinet's support team is notably responsive, supporting customers with technical support 24x7 and offering high-touch support and professional services. And for mergers and acquisitions activity, Fortinet's quick implementation and deployment enable organizations to easily consolidate and standardize solutions across data centers.

The Total Economic Impact? Of Fortinet NGFW for Data Center And AI-Powered FortiGuard Security Services Solution is a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Fortinet in June 2023. Download the full studyhereand learn more about FortiGate NGFWs for the data centerhere.