Terremark Includes Tripwire Logcenter Into Cloud Service

Terremark is collaborating with Tripwire to include Tripwire's Log Center for cloud-based log management as part of its Terremark cloud service. The agreement is a continuation of a similar agreement Terremark had with Activeworx, which Tripwire acquired a year ago. While the Tripwire's Log Center was intended for the standalone server environment to monitor other standalone servers, cloud support means users will be able to launch Tripwire Log Center within a cloud on a virtual host and support virtual hosts directly.

The agreement between the two companies is not exclusive, and it is unlikely that Tripwire will make a similar agreement with another provider because Terremark--which specializes in supporting federal government clients such as the USA.gov website--has more focus on transparency and security than do other cloud service providers such as Amazon, says Robert Rounsavall, director of secure information services for Terremark. For example, government users have ownership of and control over their servers, including putting in their own intrusion detection systems. Terremark likes the Tripwire technology because of its analytical capabilities and because it supports multiple tenants with a single instance of the software, which most security products don't.

The Tripwire partnership will help Terremark compete better with Rackspace, which has had a similar agreement for some time through its enterprise security information management (ESIM) partnerships with Alert Logic and netForensics, says Andrew Hay, a senior security analyst for the 451 Group. "Although not the first to the table, and most certainly not the last, we still see this partnership as a good fit for both Tripwire and Terremark," he says.

However, Hay adds that the trend towards incorporating ESIM products into the cloud and hosted environments could end up hurting managed security service providers. "Providers such as AT&T, BT Group, CGI, SecureWorks and a bevy of others that currently provide monitoring or management of on-premises and hosted ESIM products may see revenue dissolve as customers begin the journey to off-premises hosting."

The Tripwire technology provides standard functionality such as log aggregation, compliance management and reporting. Typically Terremark aggregates logs and sends them to its users on request. Terremark's monitoring service is typically priced with a base cost of $1,000 per month for monitoring the service, with an additional cost of $50 to $80 per month per server. This pricing includes both the licensing and the operational expenses.