73% Cost Reduction: How the atPlatform Slashes Cybersecurity Expenses

You will often see estimated costs for cybersecurity as 10-15% of an IT budget, but this only accounts for the hardware and software that is required to secure the network when you are using traditional technologies, and it’s actually the smaller part of the costs. Network administrators—who have to maintain firewalls with extremely complex rulesets, monitor constantly for threats, manage fixed IP addresses for VPNs, and monitor open ports that are often required for various devices—are, by far, the most significant cost to an IT organization. This cost can be compounded when two companies try to work together, either through a partnership or merger.

Atsign’s technology not only saves money on software and hardware costs, it saves substantially on IT personnel and their mental health.

Simple Security, Big Gains 

Yes, firewalls and VPNs cost money, but the real sinkhole is the process of approval for network changes, making those changes, and then ensuring they remain stable, especially when nothing seems trustworthy.

Atsign changes the trust model. The atPlatform gives the ability to cryptographically prove identity by having a network address (an atSign) that must cryptographically sign challenges to prove they are who (or what) they say they are. Read more about atSigns, here. Making every person, entity and thing addressable and cryptographically secure, frees up administration. When two businesses want to exchange information, they simply allow for their known atSigns to communicate. 

Secure By Default

From a network point of view, you can employ our CTO and Co-founder Colin’s favorite ruleset: deny all inbound. With the atPlatform, you only ever need to make outbound connections. An example where this ruleset would be essential would be in a DMZ network. Taking our example from the beginning, two companies joining together would do so in much the same way, just without the complexity of the network-level rulesets, and without having to involve third-parties that have the ability to see your data.

Image: Cost comparison between traditional solution (left side) and Atsign solution (right side).

73% Cost Reduction

The atPlatform offers a 73% cost reduction as opposed to traditional cybersecurity approaches, whether that is joining two companies, or extending your network to another network. And that 73% doesn’t even include the drastic reduction in ongoing power consumption costs. 

Sustainable, too.

Running firewalls and VPNs just adds more hardware to a given network setup, which consumes power. Atsign infrastructure allows for less hardware since we don’t need firewalls, and, since the data is already encrypted, we don’t need VPNs, either. The atPlatform gives us a vision and a tangible way of making networking technology much more sustainable.

See For Yourself

Atsign technology will deliver more cost-effective experiences on the Internet. You can get started today by trying out NoPorts, a remote access tool that enables secure, private device communication without the need for any open ports, making devices invisible to potential attackers. Activate the free trial using code: 30dayfreetrial