Trend Micro has released a platform for delivering email security as an online service, and hinted that a similar service for managing all web threats could follow.

Announcing SecureCloud, the company said the move is a response to the need to secure network endpoints instead of relying on securing the network perimeter.

Available immediately, SecureCloud will offer a range of services that can all be managed from a single web console. The first to be made available is Trend Micro Email Reputation Services, which provides filtering against malicious email content. The platform will eventually offer services covering infrastructure from the gateway to the desktop.

Raimund Genes, chief technology officer at Trend Micro, said that the service should appeal to firms that have traditionally struggled to manage their own security systems, adding that the firm is also working on a web scanning service.

“Initially we are rolling out the email service, which analyses URLs within mails, looks for botnet infections, and can spot data leakages,” Genes said. “You can delay email for a couple of minutes, no one misses it, but doing the same thing for the web creates a lot of issues with latency. We have to think about how scalable that is.”

SecureCloud will include a mix of services designed to meet different customer needs, whether small, medium or large companies.

John Maddison, general manager of Trend Micro Network Services, said it had particularly focused on large companies as “enterprises want a lot more control than SMEs”. He added that large firms would not necessarily want an all-encompassing service.

For small businesses that are less confident with managing their own security, an easy-to-use user-interface has been built. “In the past these systems have been very complicated,” Genes said. “So for less experienced firms we have created a simple look and feel.”

Genes added: “As we go into new threat arenas the ability to update enterprise systems becomes harder and harder. Companies buy a solution and then find that every six months they need to update it. SecureCloud updates every minute.”