Qualys says it has integrated its Qualysguard web application scanning software with Imperva's Securesphere web application firewall.

The combination is billed as giving enterprises the ability to deploy a comprehensive security strategy that delivers powerful protection for business-critical web applications.

Under the integration agreement, Savvis, the outsourced internet infrastructure services specialist, will supply the integrated solution as part of its hosting offering, which is aimed at enterprises.

Savvis says that the plan is for the joint offering to be offered alongside its Symphony cloud infrastructure services.

Chris Richter, the firm's vice president, said that Imperva and Qualys already enable his firm to deliver separate - but important - security services to its customers.

"The integration of these technologies represents a significant advancement in web-application protection, and Savvis looks forward to offering it as part of our hosting and Savvis Symphony cloud infrastructure solutions for enterprises", he said.

Over at Qualys, Wolfgang Kandek, the firm's chief technology officer, said that, as attackers focus increasingly on exploiting web applications, organisations need ways to immediately mitigate the underlying vulnerabilities, especially since web applications have a longer patch cycle than operating systems and desktop applications.

"Imperva's integration with Qualysguard helps customers achieve this goal and protect their web applications from attacks until they can patch them fully", he explained.

According to Kandek, the integration will give customers a number of benefits, including the ability to eliminate emergency fix and test cycles and remediate discovered web application vulnerabilities using a `virtual patch' approach.

The virtual patch system comes from Imperva's WAF technology, Infosecurity notes.