Cavalier Telephone today announced a new on-demand security service for its small to mid-sized business customers, based on a partnership with Perimeter Internetworking.

The new SecureIP service users Perimeter’s Unified Threat Management suite to offer firewall protection, traffic policy control, intrusion prevention, web content filtering and email AV scanning. For a monthly subscription, businesses can add the security offering to their high-speed access service from Cavalier, a competitive services provider in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.

“In the small to medium-sized business space, between the T-1 and DS-3 level, there is a clear need for security servcies,” said Andy Lobred, vice president of Product Management and Marketing at Cavalier. “Most customers in that space don’t have the resources to dedicate to security on a fulltime or even part-time basis. This service reduces capital outlays and operating costs for our customers, reduces total cost of ownership from a lifecycle perspective, with no incremental staff needed and minimal setup at the customer premises.”

The key, Lobred said, is Perimeter’s continuous monitoring and the updating of security policies every three hours, to take new threats into account. Cavalier had offered its own home-grown security services in the past, but with the partnership, is able to offer more, he said. Customers get a portal that can easily display network status and current threats.

“We liked Perimeter because they have a good track record in the CLEC space,” Lobred said. “We can move at our pace. We also like the fact that they were pretty dedicated to having a 24-7 security operations center, not only for large customers but the small to mid-sized businesses, where 80% of our customers are. Price was a driving factor as well -- they put together a package with enhanced capabilities at a competitive rate.”

Perimeter, which combines dozens of technologies from best-of-breed vendors into its solution, is focusing in sales to service providers as an expansion of its business, said Clark Easterling, director of product management.

“We have about eight service provider customers around the country – it is becoming a second line of business for the company,” said Easterling, who came to Perimeter from NuVox. “We provide a CPE-based UTM device which the service provider manages for their customer.”

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