AT&T, Verizon named security leaders

Networx vendors AT&T Inc. and Verizon Business are among the information technology consultancy Gartner Inc.’s five leaders in the managed security service provider market, with Sprint featured among niche MSSPs.

In addition to firewall and intrusion detection and prevention monitoring and management, security log management has become “a nearly universal offering,” Gartner said in its April Magic Quadrant report.

“Verizon Business gained MSS capabilities from its acquisition of MCI, then augmented those by acquiring Cybertrust in July 2007,” Gartner said. “Consider Verizon Business security services when you are using other Verizon Business telecommunications services or when your requirements include strong security expertise and global delivery capability,” Gartner advised.

One growing area for enterprises is in-the-cloud services, Gartner researchers said. “Enterprises seeking to augment bandwidth services with ITC protection, requiring remote-office/branch-office MSS, or requiring a multinational, multiservice MSS partner, should consider AT&T,” the report said.

“Sprint offers MSS to its government and commercial customers for bandwidth or network services,” the report said. “Sprint customers looking for MSS offerings with a known provider should consider Sprint for customer-premises-equipment and ITC deployments.”

MSSPs generated $570 million in 2007, with 2008 MSSP revenue up by 15 percent, the report said.