When you are conducting your risk assessment and investigating what exactly you need to improve your cybersecurity strategy, it is essential to evaluate each cost and calculate measurable results your security tactics will bring.
This blog breaks down on how to calculate Return on Security Investment (ROSI) and prove how your security strategy drives revenue, reduces costs, and supports business growth. Discover how Cyber Security Cloud helps maximize your ROSI with advanced, cost-efficient WAF solutions.
What is the Return of Security Investment?
When most businesses think about cybersecurity, it is often framed as a necessary expense to avoid risks. However in today’s digital landscape, security is always two-fold, both a risk-prevention measure and a strategic business enabler.This is especially true for cloud-native SMBs and startups, handling sensitive data and trying to scale.
Return on Security Investment (ROSI) is a framework to evaluate how your security strategy is not only protecting your business, but actively contributing to cyber risk reduction, revenue growth, operational efficiency, and stronger compliance readiness.
For security and business leaders alike, understanding and communicating the tangible business impact of your security investments is crucial. ROSI shifts the narrative from “cost center” to “long-term business enabler.”
How to calculate ROSI
Here’s a quick and simple formula for calculating ROSI:
ROSI = (Savings by Security Investment - Cost of Security Investment) / Cost of Security Investment
ROSI quantifies the net financial benefit of your security initiatives, highlighting the value of preventing incidents versus the cost of implementing protective measures.
To estimate the savings from your security investment, use one of these formulas:
- Potential Cost of an Incident × Number of Incidents Prevented
- Annual Loss Expected × Mitigation Rate
When calculating the savings, also consider these critical factors:
- Downtime reduction
- Lower audit preparation costs
- Fewer compliance fines
- Reduced DevOps or engineering labor hours
- Increased buyer confidence
Real-Life Scenario: Managed Rule Plus
While ROSI is a great way to assess overall security strategy, it can also be applied on a smaller scale to evaluate the value of individual tasks and tools.
On average, monthly WAF management costs around $6,600, requiring your engineer about 55 hours of work per month, quickly adding up to $80,000 and 660 hours a year.
Our WAF rule management solution, Managed Rule Plus, delivers cost-effective protection without adding operational overhead, starting at only $320 a month.
Example ROSI Calculation:
- Current spend: $6,600 × 12 = $79,200
- Cost Savings: $79,200 − $3,840 = $75,360
- ROSI: ($79,200 − $3,840) ÷ $3,840 = 19.63 → 1,963%
With Managed Rule Plus, your team can free up valuable time and budget to focus on other critical security priorities, delivering ROSI of 1,963%.
Visit our pricing page to quickly see how much cost and time you can save with our solutions.
The Tough Question: What is the Value of Preventing Security that Might Not Occur?
Investors or internal stakeholders may ask, “How do you prove the value of preventing something that hasn’t happened yet?”
That’s the challenge of security is that it is never guaranteed, but here’s what we do know:
- Security damage isn’t linear. One damage could lead up to a catastrophic business loss.
- The likelihood of an incident is directly tied to your security posture. The better your defenses, the lower the risk.
- Security is more than protection but a competitive signal to buyers, compliance regulators, and cyber insurance providers.
In other words, ask yourself:
- Can your business survive a cyber incident today?
- What are the essential security strategies you need to implement now?
- What solutions align with compliance frameworks while also delivering revenue impact?
Asking the right questions, gathering the accurate information and data, and calculating the ROSI will help you to strategize your security effectively.
Why Choose Cyber Security Cloud for Maximum ROSI?
At Cyber Security Cloud, we focus on helping growing cloud-native startups and SMBs build secure cloud environments. With threats evolving daily, your team needs adaptive solutions that keep pace.
Our new product, Managed Rule Plus, simplifies AWS WAF by providing essential rulesets and an automatic denylist for adaptive protection.
- Hands-free denylist automatically manages and updates attack-specific blocklists.
- Monthly reporting offers added visibility into security measures.
- No platform integration needed.
- Starting at only $320/month, it delivers ROI-efficient WAF management within reach of smaller teams.
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Our solutions are built with cost-efficiency and growth in mind, helping you maximize ROSI by reducing time, cost, and risk, while providing most adaptive WAF management available.
Bottom Line
Security investment will look different for every company. It depends on:
- The volume and sensitivity of data you handle
- The size and complexity of your organization
- Your business goals and growth trajectory
Both security and business leaders must align on how security contributes to growth as both a preventive control and a revenue-generating asset. ROSI gives you the data to prove it.
Ready to maximize your security investments
Sign up for a demo today and find out how Cyber Security Cloud can help you turn protection into performance.
