Getronics launches security centre following accord with Counterpane

The company said it is adding security services to its normal managed desktop services as it provides "a natural continuation" of the company's core skills in this area.

"By concentrating resources in this way, we are able to focus investment to ensure that our clients have access to an exceptional level of expertise and to technical resources that would otherwise be beyond their reach," said Klaas Wagenaar, CIO and chairman of Getronics, at the launch in Brussels.

The centre's opening follows on from last year's opening of similar centres in Mexico and Budapest. The operation will monitor more than five million endpoints, such as desktop, laptops and PDAs.

The team of ten staff will track more than 15 million security log events around the clock. From that information they will look for emerging threats from hackers and virus and alert customers. The centre will use security tools from Counterpane to help correlate all the data it gathers.

Counterpane CEO Paul Stich said that, by combining his company's technology with the reach of Getronics, both were able to offer a service to clients that was "absolutely pertinent to the networked businesses of today".