The ROI of Axonius: Insights from the Forrester TEI Study

It’s a familiar cycle: a new vulnerability emerges, teams scramble to respond, and just as remediation begins, another alert hits.

What if you could move from reactive firefighting to proactive security management—and back it up with hard ROI data your CFO will care about?

A recent Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study commissioned by Axonius tackled this question. The results? A composite organization representative of interviewed customers with experience using Axonius Cyber Asset Management saw a significant 156% return on investment with a $3.22 million net present value over three years.

Let’s break down how this is possible and how you can uncover your organization’s potential ROI with the Forrester TEI study and ROI calculator.

What’s at stake without comprehensive asset management

The Forrester study revealed that before implementing a cybersecurity asset management solution, security teams were:

• Manually maintaining asset inventories despite exponentially growing attack surfaces

• Working with siloed security tools that created dangerous visibility gaps

• Focusing only on securing “crown jewel” assets while overlooking the broader attack surface

• Spending countless hours on repetitive tasks that could be automated

Sound familiar? It’s what happens when asset management lives in spreadsheets—outdated, incomplete, and risky.

One of the most alarming findings: the composite organization uncovered 150% more assets with Axonius than they previously knew existed in their environments.

It’s like thinking you own 10 servers—only to find out you actually have 25. Those extra fifteen? They’ve been operating in your environment, potentially unpatched, unmonitored, and unknown to your security team.

The financial and operational impact of Axonius

The business case for cybersecurity tools has traditionally been a tough sell. Many security teams rely on qualitative value or risk avoidance arguments rather than tangible financial outcomes.

To help bridge that gap, the Forrester TEI study provides a clear framework for measuring the financial and operational impact of Axonius, based on interviews with four organizations that have implemented the platform.

The quantifiable benefits realized by the composite organization include:

1. Enhanced attack surface visibility: $1.3 million in savings

• 150% more assets classified than previously identified

• 60% time savings in maintaining accurate asset inventories

• Cost savings from decommissioning unnecessary endpoint licenses

2. Accelerated vulnerability management: $1.1 million in savings

• 70% time savings in investigating and prioritizing impacted assets

• 90% time savings in other vulnerability management activities

3. Faster incident response: $2.1 million in savings

• 60% time savings in security incident investigations

• Improved accuracy in distinguishing false positives from genuine threats

4. Automated compliance reporting: $84,000 in savings

• 75% time savings in preparing risk management presentations

• 80% time savings in collecting evidence for compliance obligations

5. Improved asset workflows: $671,000 in savings

• 80% efficiency gains across M&A execution, CMDB enrichment, and other processes

6. Reduced breach risk: $63,000 in savings

• 5% reduction in risk of external breaches

Interested in calculating your own organization’s potential return? Check out the ROI calculator.

Time savings across security workflows

Every hour your team spends manually updating spreadsheets is an hour they could dedicate to more strategic work. The Forrester study found that the composite organization saved significant time across multiple security workflows:

• 60% time savings on asset inventory maintenance

• 70% time savings on vulnerability investigations

• 60% time savings on incident response investigations

• 75% time savings on risk management reporting

• 80% time savings on compliance evidence collection

Turning security into a business enabler

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of the Forrester TEI study is how it reframes cybersecurity asset management from a necessary evil to a strategic business advantage.

With proper visibility and automation, security teams can:

1. Accelerate business initiatives like mergers and acquisitions (with 80% efficiency gains in asset research)

2. Optimize technology investments by identifying and decommissioning unnecessary licenses

3. Reduce operational risk through improved compliance and governance

4. Enable more agile responses to emerging threats

5. Support digital transformation with confidence in security posture

Next steps: calculate your ROI 

Ready to explore the cost savings and business benefits Axonius can bring to your organization? Start here:

1. Download the full Forrester TEI study to understand the methodology and detailed findings

2. Use the ROI calculator to estimate the potential impact on your organization

3. Identify your biggest pain points in current security operations

4. Consider a proof of concept to validate the findings in your environment