St. Bernard, provider of security appliances and software, is adding managed security and business services to its portfolio with the acquisition of Singlefin. St. Bernard can now offer on-demand email filtering, Web filtering, and instant messaging (IM) management as a hosted or managed service to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

"Our current customers and prospects now have the opportunity to select a security appliance or service model that will efficiently and effectively protect their corporate assets and ensure business continuity," said Vincent Rossi, president and chief operations officer at St. Bernard Software.

Managed and hosted security services, sometimes referred to as security "in the cloud," is a rapidly growing industry. Key attractions include the ability to quickly add services on-demand, offload administrative tasks, reduce the network attack surface, expedite incident response time, and reduce budget uncertainties.

"Security in the cloud is the fastest growing segment in [the SME market], offering affordable pricing and immediate access to security programs without the typical infrastructure requirements," said Richard Stiennon, chief research analyst for research firm IT-Harvest.

Singlefin's pricing model includes two managed service packages. One offers email, IM, and Web filtering for $2.95 per user per month. The other package, priced at $9.95 per user per month, provides email, IM, and Web filtering along with email and Web site hosting, shared calendars and contact lists, file storage, secure archiving, and the ability to synchronize data to mobile devices.