Microsoft is diving deeper into cybersecurity with three new managed services to help companies with their security needs.
Microsoft Security Experts “combines expert-trained technology with human-led services to help organizations achieve more secure, compliant, and productive outcomes,” wrote Vasu Jakkal, Microsoft corporate vice president for security, compliance, identity and privacy, in a blog post.
The new services include: Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting, Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR, and Microsoft Security Services for Enterprise.
The offerings will help boost Microsoft’s growing cybersecurity business. In January Microsoft said revenue from security products in the prior 12 months surpassed $15 billion, up 45% year over year — more than 8% of Microsoft’s total revenue for that time period, and three times the annual revenue of Palo Alto Networks, the largest publicly traded standalone IT security company by market value.
The company grew its security customer base by nearly 50% year-over-year in the most recent quarter, to 785,000.
Microsoft recently created a new Security, Compliance, Identity, and Management organization led by Charlie Bell, a former Amazon Web Services executive. Bringing together existing groups from across the company, the new organization numbers 10,000 people including existing and open positions, representing more than 5% of the tech giant’s nearly 200,000 employees.
Major cloud providers including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are aiming to give businesses better defenses against a growing array of threats. Google announced in March its intent to buy cybersecurity company Mandiant for $5.4 billion; Microsoft had reportedly been in the running to acquire Mandiant, before bowing out.
“Security is a top priority for every organization undergoing a digital transformation,” CEO Satya Nadella said on the company’s earnings call last month.
Microsoft this week is hosting its Microsoft Security Summit, where Jakkal and Nadella will speak.
