Solutions for Managed Security Service Providers

The greatest challenge for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) is how to deliver effective yet affordable hosted security services to customers.

Until now, the only option available to MSSPs was to build their infrastructure on standard, off-the-shelf computer hardware. Unfortunately, while per-user-per-month prices have declined the volume of traffic generated per user has dramatically increased, so the MSSP has been forced to buy more computer hardware and spend more money to service each of their customers.

The MSSP's bottom line has been getting squeezed.

The trend worsens as MSSPs branch out from simple email scanning services to web services and other time-sensitive applications. The amount of computer hardware needed for a web scanning service is substantially greater than email because the traffic generated per subscriber is higher and the impact of latency more serious. Delay an email by a few minutes and no-one will notice; delay a web page by a few seconds and the service becomes unusable.

The problem goes beyond just cost. More computer hardware means more rack space in the hosting centre, more power and cooling requirements and more support personnel to set-up and maintain the systems.

There is an alternative. The StreamShield clean internet pipes solution can be used by MSSPs to build out their infrastructure with a significantly lower capital equipment base. And through the automated StreamShield.Net update service, fewer resources are needed to support and maintain the service so operational costs are much lower.

Service expansion

For example, the StreamShield solution can be used to deliver hosted web scanning services that sit alongside the MSSP's existing email infrastructure without the need to replicate all the computer hardware. A single StreamShield Content Security Gateway device delivers the same  content security performance as hundreds of traditional computer systems.

And through the StreamShield SOAP/XML management interface, the solution can be seamlessly integrated with the MSSP's existing subscriber management portal and fully branded alongside the other hosted services.

The web services that can be offered include employee web filtering, malware protection, anti-spyware and anti-adware, internet usage controls (e.g. blocking of certain media types such as streaming media) and subscriber reporting.