CenturyLink opens Singapore SOC amid security services boom

CenturyLink has opened its second Asia-Pacific (APAC) security operations centre in Singapore, making it the latest security supplier to cash in on the region’s growing appetite for cyber security services.

Speaking at the opening of the security operations centre in Singapore’s Tai Seng industrial estate, Matt Gutierrez, senior managing director for CenturyLink APAC, said the new centre will help enterprises to detect, respond to and mitigate security threats through a range of services.

These include distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation and incident response services, as well as threat intelligence capabilities gleaned from CenturyLink’s global communications network, which spans more than 60 countries.

According to IDC, the security services market in APAC excluding Japan was worth $4.23bn in 2016, and will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 20.5% between 2016 and 2020.

Among various security services segments, managed security services (MSS) accounted for $1.58bn, which translates to 37% of the total market. By 2020, the MSS segment is expected to reach $3.86bn.

Although most of CenturyLink’s customers in APAC are multinational companies for now, Gutierrez said it is picking up more APAC-headquartered firms – including some of the region’s largest internet companies – that are looking to expand their footprint in the US and Europe.

Francis Prince Thangasamy, CenturyLink’s vice-president for product management in APAC, told Computer Weekly that although networks and security go hand in hand, not all of CenturyLink’s security services customers are also networking customers.

“We have customers that have networks with us and are buying DDoS mitigation services, but our security log management services don’t need to run on our network,” said Thangasamy.

CenturyLink’s other APAC security operations centre is in Bangalore, India. It also operates six other similar facilities globally.

Ang Chin Tah, director of infocomms and media at Singapore’s Economic Development Board, said the CenturyLink security operations centre will augment the growing pool of cyber security companies anchoring technical capabilities in Singapore.

“In addition, the centre will create opportunities for Singaporeans to be upskilled in relevant industrial skillsets, such as incident analysis, management and response, and threat intelligence,” he said.

Across APAC, CenturyLink is up against local and regional telco rivals such as Japan’s NTT and Singapore’s Singtel in the security services space.

Through a partnership with FireEye, Singtel launched a security operations centre in Singapore in 2015, while NTT runs similar facilities in Singapore, Bangalore and Tokyo.