Savvis unveils managed security services

Savvis, the provider of IT infrastructure services, today announced managed security services for vulnerability and threat assessment, as well as log management.

Savvis will provide threat management services based on the Qualys appliance for vulnerability assessment and Savvis's own correlation technology for intrusion detection. For its log management service, Savvis will use a LogLogic appliance to collect log data on the customer's network and transmit scanned information to the Savvis security operations center (SOC), where it would be stored and used to develop alert rules or create custom reports.

Regulatory requirements often call for storing log data for certain periods, notes Chris Richter, Savvis vice president of security services. The Savvis approach allows that to be done off-site with storage facilities, he says.

"While we can't guarantee you're going to pass audits, the Log Management Service is a way to store all logs on a daily basis," says Richter, who adds it includes ways to generate reports for auditors, including a Payment Card Industry template.

The Savvis service competes with other log-management services, including one recently announced by Verizon. 

The Threat Management Services, which require a customer to install the Qualys vulnerability-management appliance, will scan corporate network assets for vulnerabilities and forward the findings over the Internet to the Savvis SOC. Savvis will correlate that information with attack data from intrusion-prevention systems. (Compare intrusion-prevention products.) Other managed security service providers, including BT and IBM, offer similar security outsourcing services.

"Our SOC team will then take action based on the customer's runbook," Richter says, noting that the "runbook" is the set of guidelines and instructions a corporate customer wants to see followed in response to possible threats.

The Log Management Service starts at $1,500 per month for 500 messages. The Threat Management Services start at $600 per month for 10 assets.