AT&T Makes the Case for its Global Security Story

| Aug 6, 2009 | Managed IT Services | Competitive Intelligence Report

| Analyst: Amy Larsen DeCarlo

Current Perspective: Positive
Vendor Importance: Moderate
Market Impact: High

Event Summary

August 6, 2009 - AT&T announced the availability of managed security services in India, including both its Premises- and Network-based managed firewall offers, the Internet Protect and the company’s My Intranet Protect alert and notification services. AT&T's Network-Based Firewall service is a cloud-based solution that allows customers to manage and control individual users' access to the Internet and help prevent unauthorized access into their corporate AT&T network, without the expense of premises equipment. The firewalls are actively managed and monitored 24x7 at AT&T's Security Network Operations Center (S/NOC), a protected, fully-redundant site.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on AT&T’s introduction of key elements of its managed security services (MSS) into India, and the significant enhancements that the provider is making to its network-based managed firewall solution. The company is both expanding the geographic reach of its security suite into important markets while deepening the functional depth of its portfolio. The improvements that the company made to its network-based firewall in this release are a prime example. By incorporating advanced capabilities into its cloud-based firewall offer such as anti-virus scans for instant messages; active intrusion detection/prevention services; and the ability for enterprise customers to make policy changes through their portal, AT&T gives businesses more visibility into content and a greater degree of control so that they can tailor the service to fit their dynamic security requirements.

• Vendor Importance: Moderate to AT&T, because the company is trying to better position itself to tap into rising demand from business customers in markets such as India. This includes robust managed security solutions to augment their often sparse internal security resources with a greater global MSS portfolio. The expanded geographic availability of core MSS offers such as managed premises and network-based firewalls plus new capabilities for its cloud-based firewall solution such as inline scanning of HTTP and FTP content will help AT&T distinguish its MSS offers from those of its rivals.

• Market Impact: High on the managed security market segment, because AT&T can now go head to head against any MSSP competing for multinational accounts with a suite of services that balance the needs of customer to maintain control over their security infrastructure and policies while removing much of the complexity associated with managing the technology internally.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

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Recommended Competitor Actions

• Verizon Business should respond to the announcement by noting that its MSS offers are available to customers in an already lengthy list of countries, including India. The company shouldn’t go out of its way to paint AT&T as a latecomer given that the provider will likely ramp up services in additional countries quickly. Instead the company needs to stress how quickly it makes new solutions and feature enhancements available to customers in geographies around the world. With respect to the managed network-based firewall solution, Verizon Business needs to point to the benefit that it offers customers by having its security experts monitor and update policies for their customers to meet client-defined business requirements. The company can portray the self-service functionality now available in the AT&T portal as not advantageous.

• BT needs to point out the fact that it already offers an extensive set of MSS solutions to customers in regions around the globe, including a comprehensive set of network-based firewall services. The company can point to its already strong presence in India as evidence of the international flavor of its MSS portfolio.

• All competitors in the managed network-based firewall space can actually capitalize on the AT&T announcement, using it to draw attention to the general benefits of cloud-based solutions and the advantages of their own particular offers. Providers should promote the investment they are making in building out the feature sets of their own offers, while highlighting the importance of their supporting consultative capabilities in helping enterprise customers set the most appropriate policies for their needs.

Recommended End User / Customer Actions

• Multinational companies and India-based businesses should put AT&T on their MSSP short lists. The company has, or will soon be, offering a full host of MSS solutions, with the local presence and global reach to back those services up with the appropriate level of expertise and physical infrastructure.

• Prospective enterprise clients, particularly those supporting highly distributed environments, should look into AT&T’s network-based managed firewall offer as a less expensive alternative to premises-based solutions. Prospective customers should ask AT&T to quantify the cost advantages, and detail other benefits they can expect from a centrally-managed, cloud-based service

• Existing network-based managed firewall customers should ask for more information on how the enhancements can benefit their organization, both in terms of providing more effective controls and in simplifying the management of their infrastructures.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

| Client access - Full report in Managed IT Services | More information
| Client access - Full report in Telecom Services - Asia | More information

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