Presidio Networked Solutions, a systems integrator based in Greenbelt, Md., has formed a business unit that specializes in network-management services.

Traditionally, Presidio has focused on a wide variety of fields including data management and storage, telepresence and network transport. Now Kevin Mulloy, Presidio's head of managed services, says the company for the first time will have a unit that will focus entirely on managed network services.

The new Presidio Managed Networks unit's three main areas of concentration will be ensuring quality network performance, managing such unified communications as VoIP and Web conferencing, and such security services as firewall and VPN management, Mulloy says. Presidio, which has official partnerships with Cisco, Microsoft, IBM and several other top technology companies, says it will market its managed services primarily to business and government customers.

With its new managed services unit, Presidio is hoping to take advantage of what many analysts and firms are projecting will be a robust managed-services market in the coming years. Ovum, a consulting firm that specializes in telecommunications and software consulting, released a study last month projecting that the global market for managed services will deliver $66 billion in revenue by 2012. Overall, the managed services generating the most interest among corporate users are managed metropolitan Ethernet, managed IP, VPNs, managed VoIP and managed security, the study found.

Other studies also have shown that the market for managed security services is growing fast. Data published by business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, for instance, projects that the managed security-services market will exceed $6 billion by 2011. Additionally, a poll conducted earlier last year by CompTIA showed that nearly one-third of 322 organizations surveyed planned to make new investments or increase spending on managed security services.