SAN FRANCISCO -- RSA Security Conference 2009 -- Security service provider Savvis this week launched a new managed Web application firewall (WAF) service that runs on its Cloud Compute offering.

Web application firewall technology has been available for two years in hardware and software, but Savvis' offering is one of the first to be delivered as a service. Many companies are moving toward WAFs as a means of protecting their systems from Internet-borne malware and because some regulations, such as the Payment Card Industry's Data Security Standard, require it.

"About 80 percent of the customers we have in the pipeline are driven by PCI," says Chris Richter, vice president of security services at Savvis. "Companies are looking to meet the compliance requirement without the cost and complexity of implementing a WAF themselves."

The Savvis service, which is built around Imperva's SecureSphere product line, allows enterprises to get WAF hardware and maintenance without having to install or maintain it themselves. It lets enterprises detect and block malicious Web requests, combining a dynamic white list policy model with up-to-date application signatures and session tracking, the company says.

Under the service, Savvis will also monitor application activity and notify customers of potential attack activity. Imperva's Correlated Attack Validation technology can correlate violations across security layers and over time to accurately identify the most complex attacks, Savvis says.

The WAF service may also help prevent data leakage because SecureSphere can inspect outbound traffic to identify possible leaks of sensitive data, such as cardholder data and Social Security numbers, Savvis says.

The new service is part of Savvis' Cloud Compute offering, which also includes virtual firewalls, intrusion detection, and antivirus/anti-malware capabilities. The service will be offered in small (100 megabits of throughput), medium (500 megabytes), and large (1 gigabyte) versions. Pricing will range from $2,800 for the small offering to $6,000 for the large.

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