A new global survey conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) and Palo Alto Networks revealed that organizations face security complexity challenges while managing, on average, 83 different solutions from 29 vendors. The survey also shows that 7 out of 10 companies with a high degree of platformization report that their cybersecurity investments have helped drive business outcomes, such as operational efficiency and revenue generation.
In the study “Capturing the cybersecurity dividend: How security platforms generate business value”, 52% of the executives surveyed point out that solution fragmentation limits their ability to deal with cyber threats, but 75% of organizations that have adopted platformization agree that better integration between security, hybrid cloud, AI, and other technology platforms is essential. The analysis suggests that the trend of adding more solutions to combat evolving cyber threats is contributing to inefficiency—impacting both performance and financial results—while adopting a platform-based security approach can help companies reduce response times and costs without sacrificing security effectiveness.
Cybersecurity complexity is a challenging realityThe increase in digital interconnectivity expands attack surfaces and can create new vulnerabilities. Cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated and harder to defend against, while AI is being used by both defenders and attackers, creating a race in cybersecurity capabilities.
With the evolution of threats, surveyed executives estimate that security fragmentation and complexity cost their organizations an average of 5% of annual revenue. For a company where that figure reaches $20 billion, this represents a total cost of $1 billion. When combined, the costs of security incidents, lost productivity, failed digital transformations, interrupted AI initiatives, loss of customer trust, and reputational damage increase significantly.
“Organizations continue to be challenged to update their security posture to face new threats while being pressured to reduce complexity and lower spending,” said Mark Hughes, Global Managing Partner for Cybersecurity Services at IBM. “Security executives need to enable innovation, protect assets, and generate value from their cybersecurity investments to help their organizations thrive and achieve their business objectives.”
“We’ve seen the positive impacts of adopting a security platformization approach and the benefits it brings to organizations. In today’s AI-driven world, strong partnerships are more essential than ever,” said Karim Temsamani, President, Next Generation Security, at Palo Alto Networks. “IBM and Palo Alto Networks share a common vision of creating better outcomes for customers—whether in value, operations, or security, and platformization achieves all these goals. This isn’t just about improving fragmentation today but enabling better outcomes for the future.”
Key insights from surveyed business leaders:
- 52% of executives say complexity is the biggest obstacle to their cybersecurity operations;
- 80% agree they face pressure to reduce security costs, and 41% say security fragmentation has increased acquisition costs;
- 4 out of 5 organizations that have not adopted platforms say their security operations cannot effectively handle the high volume of threats and attacks;
- 80% of organizations that have adopted platformization claim to have full visibility over vulnerabilities and potential threats;
- For organizations with security platformization, the mean time to identify (MTTI) and mean time to contain (MTTC) security incidents are, respectively, 72 and 84 days shorter.
Enhancing business with platformization: unlocking the power of digital transformationThe survey concludes that effective security requires platformization. Consolidating multiple tools into a unified platform strengthens the security posture and allows organizations to experience a nearly 4x better return on investment (ROI) from their cybersecurity investments, resulting in revenue generation and increased operational efficiency.
Regarding AI, a platform-based approach can also enable organizations to ingest and analyze data more effectively to provide actionable insights. With 90% of surveyed executives expecting to scale, optimize, or innovate with AI in the next two years, integrating it into their platforms can play a key role in advancing security readiness. For example, by accelerating AI adoption for protection and using platformization to reduce investment cycles, or using platformization to establish the common governance needed to deliver the AI capabilities shaping the future.
By adopting platformization, companies can align technologies, drive innovation, and position security as a core business requirement. Through the strategic partnership between IBM and Palo Alto Networks, companies are bringing together leading security, AI, and transformation capabilities to help organizations confidently navigate their digital transformation journey, achieve desired outcomes, and generate substantial business value.
Tips for platformization success
- Choose partners that streamline your security mission and eliminate those that don’t add value. Critically evaluate current and potential technology, service, and support partners, and then decide where to invest more and when to discontinue relationships.
- Conduct incident response exercises to assess where a unified platform can have the greatest impact. Take steps to improve your incident response capabilities.
- Prepare your company to respond to threats by putting it to the test. Visit a cyber range to train business and technical teams to handle the latest cyber threats through an immersive, business-focused engagement. IBM and Palo Alto Networks offer a joint Cyber Range experience in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where customers can use the facility to support continuous improvement, training, and change management while transforming their security operational models with platformization.
