BLOG | May 29, 2025

Why Risk Management is Now a Strategic Imperative for IT Leaders—and How Network Digital Twins Can Help

As global enterprises become more dependent on digital infrastructure, the consequences of network outages, misconfigurations, or security breaches have grown exponentially.

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Dawn Slusher Senior Manager, Content Marketing and Analyst Relations

Who should read this post?

CISOs and security leaders seeking more effective ways to quantify and manage network risk
SecOps and infrastructure engineers facing visibility challenges in complex hybrid environments
IT leaders and auditors responsible for recurring compliance checks and risk assessments

What is covered in this content?

Why risk management is now a top strategic priority for global CIOs
What are common challenges in conducting network-related risk assessments at scale
How network digital twins enable visibility, automation, and precision in risk mitigation

In 2025, risk management has climbed near the top of the CIO agenda—second only to AI adoption, according to the 2025 State of the CIO report. As global enterprises become more dependent on digital infrastructure, the consequences of network outages, misconfigurations, or security breaches have grown exponentially. CIOs, CISOs, and their teams now face the dual challenge of managing risk while enabling innovation.

The importance of risk management is reflected in executive ownership. A full 73% of IT risk management leaders now report directly to a CIO, CTO, or CEO, underlining how central this function has become to business continuity and resilience. However, the same report highlights a persistent gap: only half of IT risk committees include a healthy mix of IT and non-IT stakeholders, signaling the need for broader business alignment and visibility.

The Growing Burden of Network Security Risk Assessments

A majority of organizations now conduct IT risk assessments monthly or quarterly, evaluating risk across a variety of domains. Financial, operational, and legal impacts rank among the top areas of concern, driving the need for comprehensive, defensible audits. Yet, many teams struggle to keep up. With multiple disconnected tools, overloaded staff, and inconsistent data, performing high-quality risk assessments can be both time-consuming and error-prone.

As Forward Networks’ Director of Product, Security, Renata Budko, writes in Information Security Buzz, the concept of “acceptable risk” is evolving. Organizations can no longer rely solely on subjective judgment—they need real, contextual insight to quantify and mitigate risk.

The Role of Network Digital Twins in Risk Management

This is where network digital twin technology offers a measurable advantage. A digital twin provides a behaviorally accurate model of an organization’s entire network—on-premises, cloud, and hybrid. Unlike traditional monitoring tools, it enables security and infrastructure teams to:

Visualize every possible traffic path across the network
Validate compliance with internal policies and external regulations
Identify exposure paths and misconfigurations proactively
Conduct audits with comprehensive, always-accurate data

By serving as a single-source-of-truth, network digital twins reduce dependence on siloed tools and manual processes. For overstretched SecOps teams, they eliminate hours of investigative work, improve collaboration across IT and business units, and reduce the risk of oversight.

A Strategic Advantage for CISOs and SecOps

In a landscape where operational resilience is non-negotiable, CISOs must manage not only known threats but also unknown risks created by network complexity. With staffing limitations and increasing audit demands, visibility, automation, and verification become critical enablers.

Network digital twins—like those pioneered by Forward Networks—equip security and operations teams with the data they need to make smarter, faster decisions, grounded in reality rather than assumption.

As risk becomes a shared priority across the C-suite, tools that provide clarity, accuracy, and control will define the next generation of enterprise IT risk management.

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