Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Marconi Services entered the network security services market in January with the announcement of a partnership with Internet Security Systems Inc. to launch the Marconi Security Services suite.
But according to Allan Carey, a senior research analyst at International Data Corp. (IDC) in Framingham, Mass., Marconi will face some stiff competition from other companies. Marconi’s major competitors in this area include giants such as Lucent, Nortel, Cisco and IBM Global Services.
With this new suite of services aimed directly at network security needs, Marconi claims its suite is superior to others of its kind because it is offering a complete security solution that includes services like the design, implementation and maintenance of a secure network, and network vulnerability assessments.
“Our assessment [team] will go into an organization, understand the level of risks that they’re willing to accept, understand the gap analysis as to where management believes their security levels should be as they pertain to their business needs – are they rolling out an e-business initiative? Are they focusing on CRM (customer relationship management) initiatives or something of that nature? How secure do they need to be in order to accomplish those goals in a secure fashion?” said Mike Lancas, product manager for services marketing at Marconi Services.
For the enterprise network manager, he said the suite is ideal because Marconi’s service is a one-stop complete solution.
The Marconi Security Services are made up of a four-phase program. Customers can hire Marconi to perform one, some or all of the services.
The first service is a security vulnerability assessment, which means Marconi security experts conduct network diagnostics tests, attack and penetrate the network to find weak spots and offer analysis on the network’s weak points. Secondly, Marconi can make recommendations on the security of a network to increase the effectiveness of the security. The security team can also work with its customers to plan and build a secure network tailored to the customers’ needs. And finally, Marconi offers ongoing service, support and maintenance of a network’s security.
“There is a range of services there…customized for each client depending on what their business needs are,” Lancas said. “We choose not to go in and try to take the cookie cutter approach of one security [solution] which is going to fix everybody’s problems. So we go in and understand what the business problems are that organization is facing and how we can help them solve those business problems. What security issues are keeping them up at night, and how can we focus on that to allow them to focus on their core competencies while they focus on their security needs?”
According to IDC’s Carey, the Marconi Security Services are in a good position because they can leverage the “plan, build, operate” methodology of the network infrastructure work to launch into the growing security services marketplace.
“Marconi offers an attractive security solution set which can be delivered globally to its clients,” Carey said. “They have taken a holistic approach to security by developing [the product’s] services to encompass the security life cycle from consulting to managed security services.”
IDC predicts the worldwide market for information security services will escalate from US$6.7 billion in 2000 to US$17.2 billion in 2004.
Marconi Security Services is available worldwide. Pricing varies on the scope of work, but flat-rate ASP pricing models start at US$20,000. For more information, visit www.marconi.com.
