Verizon rolls out unified threat management service

To help companies around the world better defend against the rising number of security threats, Verizon Business will monitor and manage a range of products that combine numerous critical security functions into a single piece of equipment. The offering, known as unified threat management, was announced today and is immediately available in the U.S. and in many countries in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

Verizon Business works with enterprise customers to identify where UTM devices fit into their overall security architecture and which capabilities will best protect their businesses. Customers can elect to have Verizon Business not only monitor, but also manage selected UTM services.

For those customers choosing to out-task management of UTM devices as well, Verizon Business can provide remote management of the platform, operating system and software for the devices. Verizon Business will update the rule-set, or policy, of the customer’s security devices and will review every change request for its potential impact on a company’s overall security posture.

By out-tasking support of these inherently complex devices to Verizon Business, enterprises can control deployment and operational costs while strengthening their overall security. Outsourcing to Verizon Business also helps to decrease the need for resource-intensive in-house expertise. It can be difficult for businesses to supply such expertise for all the security functions that touch UTM, such as firewall, virtual private networking and intrusion protection services.

In addition, the volume of security alerts produced by UTM devices can be significant, making it difficult to filter out genuine security threats. Finally, there is the challenge of maintaining consistent procedures and processes for how security incidents identified by UTM devices are handled.

Verizon Business’ latest managed security offering can be fully integrated with its extensive portfolio of security products and services to give customers a holistic view of their security environment. Verizon Business’ comprehensive approach to security delivery helps to enable the best possible defense for customers.