Verizon Business outlined its strategy for pushing its security portfolio into the cloud.
The announcement is meant to complement the company’s on-premise MSS (managed security service) offerings, and will be rolled out in phases between June and early next year.
“Secure connectivity is the natural entr??«e into higher-end services of the everything-as-a-service model…CAAS, cloud-based storage and managed applications,” Jonathan Nguyen-Duy, director of security product management at Verizon Business, told eWEEK. “Our development roadmap prioritized customer demand followed by rigorous testing of leading-edge technology. Therefore, e-mail and Web filtering is the initial focus followed by the more complex firewall, IDS and DOS [denial of service] services.”
Starting in June, Verizon private and public IP network users with Secure Gateway will be able to leverage the company’s new cloud-based MSS for anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-malware and URL filtering services. These services will be integrated into Verizon’s networking offerings at no additional cost for customers, according to the company.
In the fall, Verizon plans to offer cloud-based support for network firewalls and intrusion detection and prevention systems. These services will be available separately and can be used to protect Verizon networking offerings as well as connections from other providers. The final prong of Verizon’s cloud strategy will be unveiled early next year, when the company makes enterprise-level DOS detection and mitigation services available in the cloud.
Customers will be able to easily secure new locations using a centralized management console that allows for real-time provisioning and administration, the company said.
“Our intent is not a one-model approach to everything – some clients will seek cloud-based solutions while others will demand traditional premises-based solutions,” Nguyen-Duy said. “Corporate culture, compliance requirements and legacy investments are just some of the factors that influence whether a client will choose cloud or premises-based services.”