The Ultimate Guide to AI Network Security
March 13, 2026
Latest Insights
Future proofing business connectivity: how to secure your CFO’s buy-in along the digital transformation journey
- Ciaran Roche
Enterprises are increasingly feeling the pressure due to shifting business priorities, unpredictable business conditions, and changing customer demands. However, faced with legacy IT infrastructure and outdated technology stacks, enterprises are frustratingly finding themselves being held back. Digital infrastructure certainly needs the attention of business leaders yet the reality is that most CEOs and CFOs aren’t from a technical background and often the business case for such important change is lost on them. The key to getting the green light on any major IT project is taking business leaders on a journey where technical decisions are clearly translated into business benefits upfront. Additionally, leaders must familiarize themselves with the root cause of relevant issues – what they entail, and why they need to be addressed.
According to Gartner, 77 percent of CFOs are planning to increase technology budgets this year, which puts greater scrutiny on not only the CFO, but the CEO and CIO to ensure that the best choices are being made. With alarming statistics around the high rate of IT project failures, leaders must collaborate closely with their IT counterparts to understand the complexities of their IT operations, including their IT stack, underlying infrastructure, and articulate clearly what their enterprises need to remain digitally successful.
When advocating for needed IT projects, such as a network and security modernization, CIOs need to communicate in a language that CFOs understand. This means presenting the overall cost of the project (not just the upfront costs), as well as the return on investment (ROI) and potential cost savings, highlighting the long-term business benefits and risks. It is essential to engage the CFO throughout this journey, educating and clarifying the importance of your recommended IT projects.
Understanding the investment challenges of your enterprise’s gatekeeper – your CFO
CFOs act as the guardian of the financial health of enterprises; it is their job to determine whether the project they’re presented with is not risky or without merit. Yet, with reports suggesting that up to 80 percent of AI projects will fail and Gartner revealing that 30 percent of GenAI projects will be abandoned after proof of concept by the end of 2025, many CFOs are right to be skeptical about the ROI of new IT projects.
Additionally, Forrester reports that only one in five tech executives are optimistic that their digital transformations will succeed, highlighting the very real duress under which digital initiatives and transformations are operating. Combined with ambiguity around next-generation technology and learning required by CFOs and boards, even IT teams and leaders, the grey area is expanding, making it challenging to ensure that all leaders, including CFOs, are dialed in to why an investment in their network and security infrastructure and strategy is not only a nice to have but essential to remain a leading digital enterprise.
“Investment in Wide Area Networks (WANs)—particularly the network and security layers—must no longer be viewed as a mere “back-office” function but recognized as a strategic business enabler. In today’s digital-first landscape, where global enterprises are expanding, supporting hybrid workforces, and facing escalating security challenges, these foundational layers are critical to ensuring operational continuity, driving productivity, enhancing efficiency, and enabling agility and scalability. Simply put, success hinges on aligning these layers seamlessly with broader business objectives and keeping them at the forefront of strategic priorities”.
How to gain the trust of your CFO through facts, cost analysis, and ROI
Clarity is key in these conversations, but CFOs must also be brought along the digital transformation journey, learning from key stakeholders and IT teams why these changes are needed and how they fit within the business in terms of impact, benefits, ROI, and adoption roll-out timeframe.
Before even suggesting a new IT initiative in passing with your CFO, IT leaders must thoroughly vet providers and MSPs and show how this modernization is not just needed but critical. The key also involves leveraging these new potential providers. Use their expertise to build a use case and prove its validity for business success. Once this is done, make it clear that this initiative will have a positive impact on businesses for years to come, which will help secure funding, particularly given the uncertainty surrounding reliable ROI benchmarks.
Here, we explore how to address the needs and priorities of your CFO when presenting your case for digital transformation.
How to address CFO concerns head-on
- Put yourself in your CFO’s shoes – Understand their pain points, concerns, and where they come from when signing off or declining complex and costly IT projects. In an environment of economic uncertainty, most enterprises are keeping a close eye on costs, and there is also growing unease about the fast pace of digital change and where best to hedge your bets.
- Highlight cost optimization – Focus on immediate and long-term savings and show how short-sighted it is to waste resources on an outdated infrastructure that will fail within 3-5 years. A modern digital infrastructure delivers cost savings through bandwidth scaling and increased operational efficiency, cutting unnecessary expenditures while future-proofing your business.
- Present real-world scenarios tailored to your business – Align messaging with current business objectives and show how this investment can support items, such as expanding globally, by connecting them with how a redesigned IT infrastructure, combined with independent connectivity, can help them. Ensure to highlight how investing now will offer future gains, driving innovation, and supporting your enterprise.
- Pinpoint growth enablers – Demonstrate how a next-generation network provides better global connectivity, which accelerates product launches, strengthens your position as an industry leader, supports innovation, and unlocks agility – especially crucial for managing dynamic demands, such as supporting new market expansions or AI workloads.
- Show future-proofing opportunities – It is critical to frame investments as a safeguard against evolving security threats and emerging technologies. This can help reinforce the importance of adapting IT spending to future growth and scalability needs.
- Reduce perceived risks – A detailed roadmap should be presented with a phased rollout, fallback systems, and governance frameworks to ensure a smooth transition. Provide CFOs with visibility using real-time analytics and financial impact reports to track ROI and performance
Building a use case: demonstrating the value of IT infrastructure investments
When presenting the value of modernizing an enterprise network to your CFO or even CEO, start with evaluating the fundamentals including the operational model, to identify gaps, challenges, and opportunities.
To add even greater weight to your business case, collate key financial metrics by doing a comprehensive financial analysis to support modernizing IT. In your analysis, include cost savings as well as metrics like TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), highlighting payback periods to substantiate the upfront investment in independent infrastructure. It is also worthwhile including a cost analysis on independent infrastructure versus traditional telcos to identify potential savings from owning or leasing independent network infrastructure versus relying on traditional telecommunications providers. Independent models often recurring costs by reducing dependence on expensive telco contracts.
When clearly pitching the business case for modernization and digital transformation, you will improve the decision making process, enable strategic growth and reduce overall risk for the enterprise.
Lastly, ask connectivity and innovation-focused questions to highlight why this initiative is critical. Aside from the above, ask how much bandwidth has gone up. If the answers fail to impress you, it might be time for a change. Your business depends on it.
Becoming a digitally secure enterprise through gaining your CFO’s trust and buy-in
By addressing the pain points of your CFO and showing how your enterprise can become more digitally viable, IT leaders can ensure that they not only improve but unlock new benefits from a new modern digital infrastructure, such as enhanced global connectivity, future-proof capabilities to integrate emerging technology and it better positions your organization as a digital enterprise. First, however, CEOs must show the value of this expense. Lean on the expertise of your trusted partner or MSP, presenting all the facts but benefits and long-term advantages. Make the case that this is an investment for the present, but most importantly, for the future health of your business.
Transparency throughout this process is key to building trust, and it should be a key part of the presentation, showing the upfront cost while also indicating that there will likely be continuous maintenance and fine-tuning.
Table of contents
Share this article
More Thought Leadership
The Ultimate Guide to AI Network Security
Why enterprises must prioritize robust infrastructure and security over AI
What AI means for your digital infrastructure in 2026: the top 6 AI use cases in enterprise networking and security
Global Connectivity in an era of AI and disruption