Symantec, CSC Join Forces For Managed Services

Under the deal, unveiled Thursday, Symantec will bolster CSC's security solutions with security monitoring services, including intrusion detection, security device management, and data analysis and correlation.

In exchange, CSC will deliver Symantec solutions to its customer base, and will work with Symantec managed security service providers to sell the expanded solution to new companies as well.

The partnership involves no product; only services.

According to Grant Geyer, vice president of global managed security services for Symantec, the alliance enables the Cupertino, Calif.-based vendor to reach a much broader base of customers, and could serve as a "bellwether" of similar deals down the road.

"This allows us to extend our value chain to a much greater marketplace," he said. "If this works out the way we predict it will, you might see more of these alliances in the months and years to come."

For CSC, the alliance is more of an effort to bolster already market-leading managed security services. Though the El Segundo, Calif.-based integrator has offered managed security services for several years, this is the first time it will incorporate intrusion detection, security device management and data analysis into its offering.

Chris Steinbach, vice president for global security solutions at CSC, said that partnering with Symantec brings a new level of "focus and credibility" to the managed security services CSC has offered in the past.

"What this allows us to do is bring all of that goodness from Symantec into other areas within our security lifecycle," he said. "It truly is a relationship [from which] everybody benefits."

Both Geyer and Steinbach said the partnership takes effect immediately.