AT&T and IBM announced a new partnership that the two companies say will offer customers a simplified, single-source for network security and threat management.
According to an announcement on Tuesday, the two tech giants will offer business customers a joint service that combines security network infrastructure with advanced threat monitoring and analytics along with on-premise and next-generation cloud-managed security capabilities.
Under the partnership, AT&T and IBM say the joint offering will provide customer benefits including:
• Reduced costs and minimized complexities
• Advanced visibility with intelligence and control across diverse IT environments
• Simplified infrastructure with less need for security hardware, licenses, and maintenance
While AT&T and IBM each operate their own significant IT security operations, they say the partnership will create a powerful security intelligence source.
Specific elements of the new offering include Network Security Infrastructure and Managed Security Services from AT&T, including network-based firewall, IDS/IPS, web filtering, secure email gateway, and distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection services for security devices managed on premise or in the AT&T cloud.
IBM brings to the table its Network Security Consulting to assess and transform network security; IBM Security Monitoring and Threat Intelligence for threat detection and response; and IBM Emergency Response Services for around-the-clock security expert support in responding to sophisticated attacks and helping customers remediate them.
“With today’s constantly changing threat environment, companies need cost-effective solutions that provide end-to-end protection alongside real-time monitoring and response operations,” said Andy Daudelin, VP, Security Services, AT&T Business Solutions. “We’ve created an unparalleled solution with the combined strength, reliability, and agility of AT&T network-based security services and IBM threat intelligence and analytics.”
“Organizations are finding great benefits with hybrid IT strategies that blend mobile, cloud-based and on-premise IT resources,” said Kris Lovejoy, General Manager, IBM Security Services. “But securing these infrastructures can be complicated without a single, integrated management system that avoids creating silos of security data making it almost impossible to uniformly monitor security threats across environments.”
