Optiv Unveils Agentic Security Operations In Major Managed Service Expansion: Exclusive

The offering features a key new integration with Wiz capabilities and an expanded focus on exposure management, ultimately representing a major expansion for the service offering formerly known as Optiv MDR, executives tell CRN.

Optiv announced a major expansion for its managed security services Wednesday with the debut of its Agentic Security Operations offering, as the solution provider powerhouse aims to accelerate the shift from reactive to proactive cybersecurity for customers with the help of AI, according to Optiv executives.

The Optiv Agentic Security Operations offering—which represents a substantial update to the service formerly known as Optiv MDR—features a key new integration with Wiz capabilities, an expanded focus on exposure management and a greater leveraging of AI agents, the executives told CRN exclusively.

With the launch, Optiv is “deliberately shifting away from reactive, alert-driven security operations to more of a proactive model that centers less on the detection piece and more on the exposure management piece,” said Kathryn Hall, senior vice president of services at Denver-based Optiv, No. 29 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 for 2026.

Optiv Agentic Security Operations brings together Google Security Operations technology, which had already been central to the former Optiv MDR offering, with deeply integrated cloud and AI security capabilities from Google-owned Wiz as well as with Google Threat Intelligence.

The managed security services are delivered by Optiv security practitioners, who utilize agentic workflows and operate out of the solution provider’s Advanced Fusion Center.

The result is a comprehensive managed security service model, spanning from exposure discovery and threat detection to investigation and remediation, Optiv executives told CRN.

In particular, Optiv’s increased emphasis on exposure management aims to ensure that vulnerabilities and misconfigurations are identified and eliminated before they can be exploited by threat actors, Hall said.

“What we’re signaling to the market is, detection and response isn’t enough anymore,” she said. “They need to be working with a services provider that has the front-end—the exposure management piece—integrated with the service so that it’s a continuum [of protection].”

Moving Beyond Traditional Detection

In the past, traditional MDR services have typically focused on monitoring security telemetry and responding once a potential attack has been detected, Optiv executives noted.

At the same time, areas such as vulnerability management, cloud security posture management and penetration testing have often been seen as separate functions that are managed by different teams, according to Ben Spencer, product director at Optiv.

The goal with Optiv Agentic Security Operations is to bring together more of those services into a unified approach, Spencer said.

Agentic Security Operations “allows us to take in a lot of these disparate security tools, and bring them into a single shared operating model,” he said.

The result is that Optiv is now able to deliver a more holistic approach to managed security services, as opposed to simply providing “point-in-time” detection and response, according to Spencer.

“Our big differentiator here is remediation and capabilities across the board—as opposed to just, ‘We're going to go in and do that 24/7 SOC work,’” he said.

Optiv’s increased emphasis on remediation is also aimed at meeting demand from customers to help not only with identifying security weaknesses, but with also fixing them, according to Optiv executives.

Reducing AI And Cloud Risk

The addition of Wiz capabilities is particularly crucial as organizations increasingly rely on cloud services for utilizing AI applications and agents, Spencer noted. Capabilities that are being leveraged for the Optiv service include Wiz Cloud and Wiz Code, as well as Wiz Defend cloud detection and response.

When it comes to deploying AI apps and agents, “you need something to secure that and have oversight for it,” Spencer said. “Wiz is that cornerstone of really securing your AI deployment and [providing] governance around that.”

By working with Wiz, Optiv is signaling that “we’re going to help you secure not just your environment, but also the AI work that you’re doing as well,” he said.

Wiz is also a natural fit for the initial launch due to Optiv’s existing strong partnerships with both Wiz and Google Cloud, Hall said.

Optiv had already built proprietary agentic use cases using Google’s Gemini technology, and the updated managed security service continues to rely on Google Security Operations for core detection and response, Optiv executives said.

Wiz is only the starting point for Optiv’s expanded strategy and set of offerings around exposure management, which will continue to add further deep integrations going forward, Hall noted.

“This is a much larger solution play for us, and Wiz is really the tip of the spear,” she said.

Doubling Down On Managed Services

The launch of Optiv Agentic Security Operations also comes as a prime example of how the solution provider is investing heavily in managed security services, following the sale of its advisory, consulting and transformation business in June.

The move—which created a separate entity, Optiv Consulting, owned by Vobis Ventures—has been aimed in part at enabling substantially greater focus on managed services for Optiv Security, CEO Kevin Lynch told CRN at the time.

The goal is for Optiv Security to invest in fast-growth areas such as managed services delivered through its Advanced Fusion Center, the company has said. And that strategy is coming to fruition with the debut of Optiv Agentic Security Operations, executives told CRN.

Ultimately, Optiv Agentic Security Operations “signals our first significant milestone on our transformation to be an AI-first managed security services provider,” Hall said.