Rackspace Inc., which has carved out a niche for itself as a provider of “fanatical support” for all manner of cloud services, is now getting into the security and compliance game with a new managed offering for small and medium-sized enterprises.

The demand for cybersecurity skills has been on the rise in the enterprise, but not all companies have the means to effectively address their security and compliance concerns. That’s where Rackspace is hoping to make a difference, with a managed security and compliance offering backed by a 24/7, 365 days a year Customer Security Operations Center that’s set to open next month.

“Every day, businesses are at risk of being affected by a security threat or data breach,” said Perry Robinson, vice president and general manager of Managed Security at Rackspace. “These threats often occur without warning, can be directed at any part of the business, and come from anywhere in the world. Damage from malicious parties can range from lost revenue and recovery costs to potential liability costs and compliance-related fines.”

Managed security represents a significant departure for Rackspace, which has previously only offered its expertise in single-point security solutions like antivirus, encryption, firewalls, intrusion alerts and threat management. Up until now, Rackspace’s customers have been responsible for ensuring all of these parts are in place and functioning as they should.

The new managed security services Rackspace is offering include compliance assistance; configuration hardening and monitoring; file integrity management; host and network protection; onboarding consultation and deployment; patch monitoring; security analysis; threat intelligence; user monitoring; and vulnerability management. The offering is only available to a limited number of customers to begin with.

“Cloud vendors need to be more proactive and help their customers understand and manage security in the cloud, and with this new Managed Security offering, Rackspace is responding to that need,” said Christopher Wilder, practice head and senior analyst, cloud services at Moor Insights & Strategy. “As organizations increasingly adopt complex cloud environments and cyberattacks become more frequent, customers can benefit from the 24/7 security expertise and support from Rackspace to help them keep their information and data secure.”

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