COMMENTARY: For years, secure email gateways (SEGs) have been the default choice for enterprise email protection. Initially built to filter spam and known malware, SEGs played an essential role in traditional perimeter-based defenses.But in today’s cloud-first, AI-powered threat world, SEGs are increasingly outmatched and overbudgeted.[SC Media Perspectives columns are written by a trusted community of SC Media cybersecurity subject matter experts. Read more Perspectives here.]While many organizations cling to SEGs out of habit or perceived necessity, security leaders are now asking a more strategic question: What’s the actual ROI of keeping our SEG? And more importantly, what could we gain by replacing it?It’s a more compelling answer than many might expect.For CISOs under pressure to optimize security spend while improving protection, the numbers speak for themselves.As a CISO, I know there’s a lot of value in future-proofing our teams. Security pros need tools that can evolve alongside attackers, remove the need for constant reconfiguration, and turn security into a strategic enabler, not just a cost center.Replacing a SEG doesn’t just reduce risk. It enhances efficiency, improves visibility, and delivers measurable ROI. And in an era where every security dollar gets scrutinized by top management, it’s hard to ignore that kind of return.Mick Leach, Field CISO, Abnormal AISC Media Perspectives columns are written by a trusted community of SC Media cybersecurity subject matter experts. Each contribution has a goal of bringing a unique voice to important cybersecurity topics. Content strives to be of the highest quality, objective and non-commercial.
The hard numbers
A recent study conducted by the AimPoint Group analyzed the business value of replacing a traditional SEG with an AI-native platform designed for cloud email environments. The results were striking: Organizations that made the switch achieved a 91% faster incident response rate and up to $703,000 in productivity savings. Cost savings came from multiple fronts:- A decrease in time spent on user-reported emails, translating to $17,074 in annual savings per 1,000 mailboxes.
- Bringing false positives down from 41% to just 8% of all alert investigations on average, slashing time spent chasing harmless alerts by 92% and saving $993 per 100 alerts investigated.
- Helping employees manage graymail — the marketing emails and newsletters that clutter inboxes — which costs organizations 70.4 hours per day per 1,000 employees, or $703,513 annually in lost productivity.
- Significantly lower administrative overhead from no longer needing to tune rules or manage on-prem infrastructure.
The hidden costs of holding on
Despite this money and time saved, many organizations continue to run their SEGs. But this decision often masks both operational and strategic hidden costs.For one, SEGs frequently let modern threats slip through the cracks. Built on static rules and known threat signatures, they struggle to detect sophisticated attacks like social engineering, vendor email compromise, and QR code phishing. As one security leader I spoke to recently put it, their SEG “caught spam, but missed the hard stuff” — the exact threats that lead to financial loss or data breaches.SEGs also create a significant drain on productivity. Security teams often spend hours each week triaging alerts, manually reviewing flagged emails, or reverse-engineering suspicious messages. Rather than saving time, these tools can quietly consume it, chipping away at overall ROI.Finally, SEGs introduce unnecessary architectural complexity. Running one alongside a cloud-native email platform adds layers of infrastructure that modern, API-based solutions simply don’t require, making them both simpler and more cost-effective in the long run.Best practices for modern email security
Organizations looking to move beyond the limitations of traditional SEGs should consider several best practices when transitioning to alternative email security products:- Prioritize rapid, low-friction deployment: Modern tools should integrate seamlessly into cloud-native environments like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace without disrupting existing workflows. Favor platforms that connect via APIs, avoiding the need for MX record changes or additional infrastructure. This reduces setup time and allows faster realization of security benefits.
- Embrace adaptive threat detection: Static rules and signature-based detection often fall short against today’s socially-engineered attacks. Look for products that use behavioral AI to analyze context, communication patterns, and user interactions. This allows for more accurate detection of nuanced threats like business email compromise, vendor fraud, and QR code phishing.
- Focus on operational efficiency: A strong email security platform should stop threats, and also streamline investigations. Choose tools that offer clear, human-readable alert explanations and automate remediation steps where possible. This minimizes analyst fatigue and accelerates incident response.
- Reduce complexity, not just risk: Security stacks grow complicated over time. By consolidating email protection into a single, cloud-native layer, organizations can reduce vendor sprawl, eliminate redundant infrastructure, and simplify ongoing maintenance. This can lead to more resilient architectures and fewer points of failure.
- Evaluate total cost of ownership and ROI holistically: When considering replacements, factor in both direct and indirect cost savings. These include reduced time spent on alert triage, fewer false positives, lower administrative overhead, and improved end-user productivity. Modern platforms often shift security from a cost center to a source of measurable operational value.
