Verizon Business announced Aug. 5 a relaunch of its managed security services platform, introducing a number of new features that it hopes will take it to the top of the managed security service provider (MSSP) heap in the coming year.

Designed to go above and beyond the standard antivirus-firewall-IPS trio so common among many security services players, the Verizon Business platform is built on technologies designed to offer mature risk management capabilities to organizations that lack in-house security resources. The heart of the system is built on what Verizon Business dubs the State and Event Analysis Machine (SEAM), which takes advantage of real-time data from the company’s global IP network and its current customers’ network devices. SEAM crunches data from these sources and combines it with asset prioritization provided by individual customers and with vulnerability and technical asset information found during regular scans of the individual customer environments to create a dynamic risk correlation.

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The platform then pushes out this contextualized information to an online portal that gives in-house decision-makers real-time visibility and control over change management, reporting and benchmarking tools.

"With this new engine powering our global security portfolio, we are delivering what customers have told us they require: highly agile, robust and cost-effective solutions that meet their unique business and security requirements,” said Michael Marcellin, vice president of Verizon global managed solutions.

Verizon Business has established itself as one of the major players within the market. In April, Gartner put the company’s services in the leaders quadrant with Symantec, AT&T and SecureWorks. With SecureWorks picking up VeriSign’s managed service division last month and Symantec purchasing e-mail services provider MessageLabs last fall, Verizon clearly has its hands full with expanding competitors. Verizon Business' announcement sends a clear message to its acquisitive competitors that it isn’t lying down for the fight.

According to analysts with Gartner, the overall MSSP market increased by 15 percent in 2008. Meanwhile, industry watchers with Frost & Sullivan expect steady growth in this market as more organizations try to secure their environments with fewer resources. Last month Frost & Sullivan predicted the MSSP market would double in the coming six years, reaching $2.4 billion by 2014.