Dallas (Texas) was the chosen setting for an announcement with a clear message: if visibility is the foundation of security, it shouldn’t depend on the size of the budget. On December 16, 2025, LevelBlue announced an expansion of its partnership with Tenable to offer unlimited enterprise-grade vulnerability scanning within its USM (Unified Security Management) platform to all customers, and at no additional cost.
In a market where vulnerability management often becomes a patchwork of licenses, modules, and specialized tools, this initiative aims to change the starting point: make scanning a standard part of the package, not an “extra.” According to the release, the integration includes both discovery capabilities and risk analysis, embedded within the USM platform, avoiding separate contracts, add-ons, or third-party solutions.
The usual problem: limited coverage and fragmented data
Vulnerability management is a well-known discipline, but one with a persistent challenge: you can’t protect what you can’t see. Many organizations operate hybrid environments — on-premises, cloud, and hybrid setups — which multiplies blind spots. The usual consequence is a combination of incomplete coverage, information spread across multiple consoles, and rising costs to maintain minimal control.
The LevelBlue and Tenable announcement directly addresses this bottleneck. The promise is straightforward on paper but ambitious in practice: continuously discover and evaluate vulnerabilities across the entire environment without the number of assets or scan volume increasing the bill.
What changes with USM integration
According to the statement, the key lies in integrating Tenable’s scanning and risk analytics technology within LevelBlue’s USM, where other security management and operations functions already reside. The takeaway is that customers don’t just get a vulnerability report — they obtain data that can connect with other signals managed by the provider.
Michael Vaughn, Director of Product Management at LevelBlue, summarizes it with a positioning phrase: “Unlimited enterprise-level scanning for every USM platform customer at no extra cost.” The implicit message is to turn a structural element (visibility) into a service standard, not a decision driven by budget or licenses.
Benefits aimed at daily operations
The announcement lists several benefits, which should be viewed through an operational lens, not just commercial:
- Included unlimited vulnerability scans: the value isn’t just in “running scans,” but in removing the logic of rationing them by cost or licensing.
- Greater visibility, including unknown assets: tackling “shadow assets” (devices or services that appear without central control) is a significant challenge in hybrid environments.
- Faster remediation: reduce friction between detection and correction by leveraging integrated workflows and guided best practices.
- Unified security context: correlate vulnerability findings with detection and response capabilities of the provider, avoiding data silos.
- AI-assisted prioritization: optional access to Tenable’s Vulnerability Priority Rating (VPR) helps determine what to fix first.
Practically, this list addresses a common pain point in security teams: plenty of vulnerabilities, but limited time and criteria to decide which ones matter today. Continuous discovery, contextualization, and prioritization aim to prevent the backlog from becoming unmanageable.
A direct message to channels: partners and MSSPs as beneficiaries
Beyond the end customer, the announcement emphasizes the channel. For LevelBlue partners, including Tenable’s “no additional cost” scanning within USM is a competitive differentiator: an MSSP can extend enterprise-level scanning to its clients from a unified platform, with less operational complexity.
This is particularly relevant because many managed service providers face dual pressures: clients demanding broader coverage and pressure to lower prices. If scanning ceases to be a variable cost line item, providers can bundle value without increasing their overhead.
From “vulnerabilities” to “exposure”: shifting the focus
An interesting aspect of the release is its emphasis on exposure management. The argument is that scanning alone yields data — often too much — and the real evolution is in transforming that data into actionable decisions. LevelBlue frames this as moving from simply listing vulnerabilities to managing exposure with concrete actions, including:
- Correlation of Tenable findings with “live” detection signals within the client environment.
- Prioritization based on exploitation intelligence and asset criticality.
- Automation of remediation through ITSM and SecOps integrations.
- Progress monitoring to demonstrate measurable risk reduction.
This approach, when well executed, aligns with a growing demand: it’s not enough to know something is wrong. The cycle must be closed (detect → prioritize → fix → verify) repeatedly. Often, organizations struggle because each phase resides in different tools and has different owners.
The background: redefining ‘managed service’ expectations
The announcement can also be seen as a move to redefine what’s considered “minimal” in a managed offering. If the provider claims to offer “world-class visibility without financial barriers,” it sets a new standard: vulnerability coverage should not be an upsell but part of the core contract.
Of course, the details matter — how this “unlimited” capability is governed in large environments, how prioritization is organized to avoid overwhelming IT teams, and how progress is reported so the business can see tangible outcomes. Nonetheless, the core message is significant: the era of paying extra to “look” might be fading in favor of models that integrate visibility as a standard feature.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does “unlimited vulnerability scanning” mean in a managed service?
It means the customer doesn’t need to buy additional modules or licenses to increase coverage and scanning frequency within the platform included in the service.
How does integrating Tenable’s scan within a USM platform improve security?
It enables vulnerability findings to be correlated with detection and response, creating operational context and accelerating prioritization and remediation.
What is Tenable’s VPR and what is it for?
It’s an optional prioritization system that helps decide which vulnerabilities to fix first, combining risk factors and exploitability criteria.
Why does “exposure management” go beyond a vulnerability report?
Because it aims to turn scan results into actions: prioritizing, automating fixes, measuring risk reduction, and maintaining a continuous improvement cycle.
via: levelblue