NTT Herds Its Security Services Forces Under One Umbrella

Japanese telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has launched its own specialized security solution provider to respond to a highly competitive security landscape.

The new company, NTT Security, is scheduled to debut Aug. 1. It’s being weaved together from parts of NTT's subsidiaries, which include channel heavyweight Dimension Data – No. 11 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 list for 2016.

NTT Security will focus on providing a wide set of solutions in such areas as governance consulting, risk management, compliance and security system design, managed security services, threat intelligence and analytics. Its wide set of solutions are aimed to help clients respond to rapidly changing security needs and threats.

[Related: 10 Things You Don't Know About NTT Data]

According to Gary Napotnik, the vice president of marketing for security service provider Solutionary, one of the companies that will be folded into NTT Security, the new company is expected to have annual revenue of around $1 billion. It will employ 1,300 people across four regions: in the U.S., Europe, Asia-Pacific and Japan.

In a statement, Solutionary said NTT Security will combine it with the managed security services platforms of both Dimension Data and NTT Communications and NTT Communications’ security practice, all of which will be integrated with the security platform of the parent firm’s R&D arm, NTT Innovation Institute.

Solutionary CEO and co-founder Steve Idelman will serve as CEO of the U.S. region, although he will cede that role in December to the current president of Solutionary, Mike Hrabik.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the company’s scale is going to give us an edge,’ Napotnik said in an interview with CRN. "We are taking the best and the brightest across all of our companies and we are combining all of those services together."

He said the new company will have scale that will give it an edge in a marketplace that’s seeing a lot of competition and consolidation.

With the largest players in the managed security services (MSS) market pulling in between $216 million and $2 billion in annual revenue, the potential $1 billion NTT Security could may make it one of the new heavy hitters in the market, running within the ranks of providers like Optiv and SecureWorks.

Napotnik said he believes many MSS providers are consolidating to keep up with demand for security providers that offer a broader profile of technology and services.

"We are combining a large series of services across the entire security lifecycle to meet any need that our clients have," Napotnik said.

In a statement, NTT Corp. said the decision to create the new business was driven by its focus on improving its security portfolio with a wider set of "cutting-edge technologies and services" that channel partners can take to market globally, thanks to "an integrated approach to security solutions."

He said NTT will focus on growing throughout the Americas, and is aggressively hiring.

NTT Security will be based in Tokyo and be fully owned by NTT Corp. It will be headed by Jun Sawada, a senior vice president for the parent company.

’We have a lot of great partners in the U.S. and they are very important for us going forward,’ he said.