Trustwave has opened a new Security Operations Centre (SOC) in Manila, Philippines, to expand its footprint in Asia-Pacific.
The facility is designed to strengthen the vendor’s ability support the growth of its managed security services in the region.
Trustwave uses SOCs as “mission control” centres for delivery of managed security services, and the Manila facility houses the infrastructure and staff related to customer service, threat monitoring and device management.
When it came to selecting the location for the new SOC, Trustwave Asia Pacific executive vice-president, Michael Petitti, said several factors were considered.
“Access to human resources that could speak a multitude of languages, which we need to provide our service, was a primary consideration,” he said.
“Since Manila is known for that, we found those skills were in an abundance.”
From a geographical perspective, the Philippines is also centrally located in the Asia Pacific region, which Petitti said was another appealing aspect of basing the SOC in Manila.
As for the timing of the move, Petitti said it is a reflection of the growth the vendor has seen, not only globally with the managed security services business, but also in the APAC region.
He added initiatives such as this “do not happen overnight,” so it has been a work in progress for Trustwave for some time.
“For us, as soon as we can get it operational, we wanted to get the news out,” he said.
“The timing just coincided with it being operational.”
Language ability
When it comes to how Australian customers will benefit from the new SOC, Petitti sees the value in the diverse language capability it will provide.
“Even for the Australian region, where English is the main language, the benefit is the versatility we are able to bring from a service standpoint,” he said.
The Manila SOC team is setup to assist clients in English, Filipino, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin.
From a time zone perspective, Trustwace is also able to maintain a “follow the sun” model that it has been using.
“Any businesses in the region that we service will fall into that category, and we will be more readily to do that from the Manila site,” he said.
The Manila SOC joins Trustwave’s three other worldwide facilities in Chicago, Denver, and Warsaw.
Patrick Budmar covers consumer and enterprise technology breaking news for IDG Communications. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_budmar.