The Real ROI of Managed Security for Enterprises

Quick Answer

Enterprise managed security shouldn’t be thought of as a cost center or drain on resources; rather, it’s a measurable driver of risk reduction and resilience. This post explains how to frame managed security services ROI in CFO-ready terms, from avoided breach and downtime costs to staffing savings, predictable spend, better insurance rates and faster compliance. You’ll also see how SOC-as-a-service, MDR and managed threat intelligence translate into both hard numbers and long-term strategic value for large enterprises.

Cybersecurity was once a process that tended to be pushed to the side by businesses in favor of investing more into other revenue-generating processes, such as sales and marketing. Over the last decade, this corporate mindset has steadily changed. Today’s enterprises know they can no longer afford the losses associated with cyberattacks and, in response, must invest accordingly.

They know if they choose to avoid making investments in cybersecurity, the consequences will be costly. Suffering an attack has a high potential to result in billions of dollars lost, substantial damaged brand reputation, loss of customer confidence and trust and compliance penalties, along with overall placing the business at risk of being further exploited by cybercriminals.

With that being said, it still can be difficult for those in charge of cybersecurity to make a CFO-ready case to invest in specific strategies, such as connecting with a managed security services partner. Enterprise managed security is a worthwhile investment that yields a solid ROI, but the problem many face is building a business case that directly ties security investments to revenue protection and demonstrates both hard and soft ROI.

In this article we’ll take a look at both the direct and indirect managed security services ROI levers your enterprise can benefit from, including but not limited to, securing revenue protection, implementing up-to-date stronger compliance measures and providing overall strategic value.

Artificial Intelligence is Rapidly Changing the Cybersecurity Landscape

In the last couple of years, the cybersecurity landscape has become quite complex, especially with the emergence of AI. Statistics suggest in the last year 87% of organizations were targeted by an AI cyberattack. Despite this high probability, experts generally agree AI-driven threats will continue to go even higher over the next three years. Furthermore, deep fake fraud attacks have increased by more than a whopping 2,000% since 2022.

Statistics also suggest more than half of business leaders feel AI gives threat actors an advantage. This means businesses like yours have to invest in the right tools to fight back. Managed security can substantially increase your company’s security posture, providing a solid ROI that goes well beyond reducing risk.

Direct vs. Indirect ROI Levers

Once an enterprise implements managed security from an expert third party, it can expect to receive both a direct and indirect return on their investment.

Direct ROI levers of using managed security that are easily quantifiable include several tangible savings. These include:

• Lessening the risks of a breach and avoiding those costs
• Experiencing less downtime
• Eliminating the need to hire, train and maintain an in-house team
• Reducing insurance premiums
• Making efficiency gains through automation
• Attaining stronger compliance status
• Achieving stronger productivity levels

Intangible ROI levers provide long-term strategic value and include, but are not limited to:

• Strengthening the company’s brand reputation for being secure
• Establishing customer trust in a brand
• Achieving smoother operations
• Gaining a competitive advantage
• Attaining better employee morale (less stress)

Outsourcing Security vs. In-House

The access to specialized expertise, along with the latest technologies that might not be attainable if purchasing outright, ensures accessibility to advanced technology and reduces the stress of in-house personnel. Everything is taken care of for the enterprise for a predictable, set fee.

On the other hand, in-house cybersecurity strategies typically mean budgets are limited, costs are unpredictable and IT personnel may become overwhelmed or not have sufficient knowledge of the latest threats. Managed security models easily eliminate many of the challenges businesses face when determining ways to improve their cybersecurity posture.

A Closer Look at Real ROI Benefits

Managed IT services can deliver much more than tangible savings. While the calculable savings are well worth the investment on their own, the lesser quantifiable savings are also important to consider. In this section, we’ll take a deeper dive into the managed security ROI benefits enterprises can enjoy once they connect with an expert partner to handle the logistics.

SOC-as-a-Service

Managed security providers make SOC-as-a-Service straightforward and simple. The partner provides 24/7 monitoring, threat detection, investigation, response, and, if necessary, remediation. Your company simply pays a monthly fee without needing to invest in hiring IT staff and purchasing the necessary hardware and software. As a subscription-based model, your enterprise has access to top-tier cybersecurity measures in a highly cost-effective manner.

Managed Detection and Response

Two key metrics in cybersecurity are MTTD (Mean Time to Detect) and MTTR (Mean Time to Respond/Remediate/Resolve). The lower the score, the better because it indicates strong resilience, rapid response and higher efficiency. A high MTTR indicates a company has a longer window of vulnerability, leaving attackers ample time to exploit their digital assets.

A managed security provider can reduce breach impact with a faster response since they are up to date on the latest threats and the remediation measures needed to either prevent or halt attacks before they do much damage. MTTD and MTTR can be leveraged to demonstrate managed security services ROI because these figures can be translated into dollar figures, highlighting actual tangible value to the business.

Avoided Breach Costs

A managed security provider builds its business model’s foundation upon knowing the ins and outs of everything cybersecurity. When connecting with a skilled security partner, your company can expect to receive proactive service with a significant decrease or elimination in breach costs.

The average cost of a data breach in 2025 was $4.4 million. This is a decrease over last year’s 4.88 million and experts attribute this decrease to faster identification and containment. Your company’s investment in outsourcing cybersecurity to an expert provider can prevent major breaches, reduce losses from fraud and lower its reliance on incident response and recovery, potentially saving millions of dollars.

Also important to consider, on-demand IT cybersecurity experts charge premium rates to identify and resolve a breach if it becomes apparent an incident can’t be handled in-house. This quickly adds up, costing thousands per incident. Avoiding incidents in the first place helps justify the proactive solutions associated with managed security services.

Reduced Downtime

Downtime, even for a brief period of time, is costly as operations come to a standstill. The ROI associated with managed security here is clear – operational efficiency and streamlined processes utilizing automation. Shorter and/or no outages equates to a better MTTD/MTTR metric. It also results in no loss of revenue, higher customer trust in the reliance of your company and keeps employees working.

For example, say your company has 1,000 employees and earns $40 per hour on average. If you experience even 5 hours of downtime per month, that equates to $200,000 per outage. If disruptions frequently occur, these losses of unproductive time add up quickly. Most companies likely cannot afford this.

Your partner will provide 24/7 monitoring of your systems, provide rapid response, ongoing support and offer strategic solutions to prevent threat actors from succeeding in infiltrating your networks and databases. Lower downtime = no loss in revenue and paying employees for idle hours.

Gain Consumer Trust/Improve Brand Reputation

Consumer trust is one of those benefits that is harder to quantify because there is no dollar amount attached to it. However, brand reputation is a significant asset that needs protecting. If your company gets a reputation for experiencing frequent or extended outages or, worse, breaching customer information, B2C or B2B consumers will likely opt to spend their dollars elsewhere.

Lower Staffing Overhead

Establishing an in-house IT department or staff can result in significant spending. Aside from salary and benefits, you’ll have to pay to recruit top talent, train new hires and provide ongoing training to stay on top of the latest threats and preventative tools.

There’s also the consideration of your IT members’ other important responsibilities. Outsourcing cybersecurity-related tasks means your in-house team can focus on innovation and your enterprise’s core competencies.

Predictable Costs

Aside from the expenses associated with maintaining an in-house IT team, you’ll also need to purchase software licenses and buy the latest tools to help mitigate threats. Because new products emerge consistently in a rapidly changing market, this gets expensive.

On the other hand, working with an enterprise managed security team means you’ll have predictable costs. For a previously agreed-upon set fee, you’ll have access to all the expertise and tools necessary to be proactive about cybersecurity. No worries about maintaining updated software, paying for overtime or any other costs associated with cybersecurity – the operational cost savings is a tangible way to demonstrate the value of managed security ROI.

Improved Insurance Posture

Companies that can show they’ve invested in strong, proactive cybersecurity strategies are usually rewarded with lower cyber insurance premiums. The reality is, insurance companies are a business that wants to remain profitable. They don’t typically want to pay out for losses, so the lower probability of a cyber incident, it’s more likely your company can attain better rates.

When your business can validate it has proactive risk reduction and is able to demonstrate compliance, it can also usually get better insurance coverage as well. Lowered premiums with better coverage is a strong, tangible metric that easily supports a good ROI.

Faster Compliance

Enterprises that neglect to comply with regulations, such as HIPAA, GDPR or other regulatory/industry compliance requirements will face severe penalties and fines, which can be quite costly. The managed security services ROI here is quite clear – your partner can implement strong security measures to ensure you are compliant, avoiding costly penalties.

Managed Threat Intelligence

Since a managed security provider builds its business upon providing reliable, trustworthy and proactive cybersecurity strategies, it is no surprise they can also offer strong threat detection and intelligence. Your partner can take your company from reacting to threats to proactively identifying and battling against them before they do damage. To accomplish this, they can:

• Collect and analyze threat data
• Provide contextualization for identified threats
• Identify industry trends with regard to threats/risks
• Deliver relevant and actionable solutions derived from data
• Prioritize risks
• Fill in internal cybersecurity gaps

By leveraging advanced tools, such as SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) and EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response), combined with their up-to-date knowledge of global threats, a security partner is well-positioned to provide its clients with assurance they can quickly identify cyberattacks, along with analyzing potential risks. In the end, the ROI is found in the form of improved cybersecurity posture.

Summary: Why Managed Security Benefits are Important in Demonstrating ROI

Between the tangible and intangible real ROI benefits, you can build a CFO-ready business case to invest in enterprise-managed security. In addition to the advantages outlined above, you can show the decision-makers of your company’s budgets just how you can control IT spend by strategically outsourcing cybersecurity tasks and processes.

With a cost-effective and predictable pricing model, you can demonstrate the cost savings, coupled with the fact your business will not have to worry about the unexpected costs associated with disruptions. Your internal teams can also put their entire focus on core business priorities and invest freed-up time into innovative projects to further strengthen or grow revenue streams.

In conclusion, a managed security provider delivers ROI by making cybersecurity a proactive approach to protecting a business’s assets and revenue streams. Reactive approaches to cyber threats no longer cut it in today’s world – the consequences associated with breaches, non-compliance and disruptions are simply too steep.

Ready to Attain a Strong Cyber-Defense with Maximum ROI? Red River Can Help!

In today’s complex technological environment, businesses cannot look at cybersecurity tools as “nice to have” assets; having these is a requirement for both the health and longevity of the business, along with legal compliance requirements.

Due to financial pressures and IT budget scrutiny, many companies attempt to go the DIY route. However, if not adequately staffed or budgeted to invest in advanced tools, they will likely fail in protecting themselves. If this sounds familiar, you aren’t alone. Many companies struggle making the decisions, wondering what cybersecurity strategies are best. Red River can help.

Experts from our skilled team will sit down with you and determine cybersecurity solutions that align with your enterprise’s unique business goals and objectives. We will analyze your current strategies, quantify risks, identify vulnerabilities and provide recommendations, helping you fill in any gaps your company may have. Our solutions come with measurable returns you can bring back to your enterprise’s CFO and board.

Let’s get the conversation started. Contact Red River today.