Optiv on Wednesday launched Agentic Security Operations, a substantial overhaul of its managed security services that pivots away from alert-driven threat response toward proactive exposure management powered by artificial intelligence. The Denver-based solution provider, ranked No. 29 on CRN's Solution Provider 500 for 2026, unveiled the offering as a major expansion of what was previously called Optiv MDR, now integrating Wiz cloud security capabilities with Google Security Operations technology and AI-driven workflows to deliver a unified approach to cybersecurity.

The new service combines Google Security Operations technology—already central to the earlier MDR offering—with deeply integrated cloud and AI security tools from Google-owned Wiz, alongside Google Threat Intelligence. Capabilities being used include Wiz Cloud, Wiz Code, and Wiz Defend cloud detection and response, all delivered by Optiv security practitioners who work with agentic workflows from the company's Advanced Fusion Center. The service spans the full cycle from exposure discovery and threat detection through investigation and remediation. Optiv's heightened focus on exposure management targets the identification and elimination of vulnerabilities and misconfigurations before threat actors can take advantage of them, representing a departure from traditional MDR services that typically monitored security telemetry and reacted after detecting a potential attack.

"What we're signaling to the market is, detection and response isn't enough anymore," said Kathryn Hall, senior vice president of services at Optiv, in comments to CRN. The company is shifting deliberately from reactive, alert-focused security operations to a proactive model that emphasizes exposure management over detection, Hall explained. According to Ben Spencer, product director at Optiv, the new approach allows the firm to pull together disparate security tools into a single shared operating model, delivering a more complete managed security service rather than point-in-time detection and response. Spencer told CRN that Optiv's big differentiator lies in remediation and broad capabilities, as opposed to simply performing around-the-clock security operations center work. The service also addresses customer demand for help not just in spotting security weaknesses but in actually fixing them, executives noted.

The addition of Wiz is especially important as organizations lean more heavily on cloud services for deploying AI applications and agents, Spencer said, with Wiz serving as the foundation for securing AI deployments and providing governance around them. Traditional managed detection and response services have often treated vulnerability management, cloud security posture management, and penetration testing as separate functions handled by different teams, but Optiv Agentic Security Operations aims to unify those areas. The launch arrives as a clear signal of Optiv's heavy investment in managed security services after the sale of its advisory, consulting, and transformation business in June, which created a separate entity called Optiv Consulting owned by Vobis Ventures. That move was designed partly to enable much greater focus on managed services for Optiv Security, with CEO Kevin Lynch stating at the time that the goal was to invest in fast-growth areas like managed services delivered through the Advanced Fusion Center. Hall characterized the debut as the company's first significant milestone in its transformation to become an AI-first managed security services provider, with Wiz representing just the tip of the spear for a much larger solution that will continue adding further deep integrations going forward. For enterprises racing to deploy AI while cloud attack surfaces expand, the question is no longer whether managed services can keep pace with threats, but whether providers can embed prevention deep enough that breaches never get the chance to start.