At 5:00 p.m. eastern, I was tied up speaking with MX Logic about their strategy for managed email security services. By 5:15 p.m. eastern, my inbox had more news pertaining to this market. Things certainly are getting hyper-competitive in the email security sector.

Specifically, Concentric announced a “Perimeter Email Protection” for resellers that target small and midsize businesses (SMBs). Through PEP, resellers can re-brand Concentric’s spam filter and anti-virus capabilities as their own. Concentric, a business unit of XO Communications, claims to handle 200 million inbound messages per day; roughly 80 percent to 90 percent of that volume involves spam, the company estimates.

While PEP sounds promising, Concentric’s Web site doesn’t look all that partner-friendly. It takes a while to find reseller promotions in the PEP area of the site, and most of the site design seems geared to direct sales.

In stark contrast, MX Logic continues to aggressively promote its managed email security services through partners. The company has been on the road in recent weeks, partnering with Xerox Corp. and Do IT Smarter to promote managed services to solutions providers.

For MSPs, the big email security opportunity likely involves melding hosted email with mobile connectivity and security. A case in point: Some managed service providers are launching hosted Exchange Server solutions that synchronize with Apple’s iPhone. It’s only natural for those MSPs to wrap anti-virus and anti-spam solutions around those Exchange Server systems.