Cloud HSMs: “Anywhere Infrastructure” is in Demand

Cloud HSMs: “Anywhere Infrastructure” is in Demand

The pace and scope of the digital era requires a robust, secure, resilient, and on-demand infrastructure that scales to meet rapidly changing customer needs anywhere and at any time, recommends Gartner. Indeed, anywhere infrastructure is critical, with cloud services in demand and on the rise.

In 2022, it’s hard to imagine when the cloud wasn’t part of everyday business. The latest research from Enterprise Strategy Group indicates that 94% of organizations are using cloud-based infrastructure services. As organizations are looking for robust security while optimizing costs with OPEX models and cloud-based infrastructures, many of the leading financial services organizations and retailers turn to Futurex. We work behind the scenes — with cloud and on-premises solutions — to safeguard data, secure transactions, and handle cryptographic needs for the world’s financial ecosystem.

Historically, the lack of viable cloud payment HSM options had been a roadblock to embracing the cloud, but we changed that seven years ago when we announced the first financial cloud HSM back in 2015. Fast forward to the present with our newly updated VirtuCrypt cloud payment HSM featured in The Green Sheet’s article, Improve your security posture with cloud cryptography.

Why the Cloud?

The cloud offers access to on-demand scalability — ideal for cryptographic operations that can face significant spikes in usage — since the cloud can increase capacity and facilitate remote access, which are vital for business, Adam Cason, vice president, global and strategic alliances at Futurex, explained in Infosecurity Magazine. For example, the cloud could be an ideal solution for on-demand scalability for a retailer needing a key management solution that will allow them to remotely manage keys on all their payment terminals.

Exploring Cloud HSM Migration Options

As multiple payment HSM vendors are currently going through end-of-life processes with their HSMs, many organizations are exploring HSM options. If your organization is among those evaluating other HSM options, then consider this checklist:

• Security. Look for FIPS 140-2 Level 3 and PCI HSM certifications. If financial services are using it, then shouldn’t you?
• Scalability. Does it scale to meet your needs?
• Ease of cloud migration. Can you migrate your cryptographic infrastructures to the cloud without changing any application code?
• Compliance. Will the infrastructure pass audits?
• Speed. Can it handle transaction processing speeds of 25,000 transactions per second?
• Integration. Does it integrate with all major payment application providers?
• High availability. Does it eliminate single points of failure in real time?
• Virtualization. Does it offer HSM virtualization?
• Suite. Is it a standalone HSM or can it rely on other HSMs in a suite?
• Direct integration with the cloud. Is it integrated with major cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP)?

Futurex answers yes to all the above. For more information, check out Time to Migrate Your HSM? Look for World-Class Security, Performance, and Cloud Scalability Flexibility.

A Heritage of Innovation: Continuing with Cryptographic Processing Around the Globe

The Green Sheet’s editor Dale Laszig interviewed Ryan Smith, vice president of global business development at Futurex, who says that VirtuCrypt builds on a heritage of innovation. “We have been working with the financial services industry for more than 40 years. We’re proud to announce a range of groundbreaking enhancements to our VirtuCrypt financial cloud HSM, delivering on our commitment to meeting the security and compliance needs of financial services organizations worldwide.”

Xaviero Cervera, director with CEGA Security, comments on Futurex’s innovative virtualization technology, “Futurex has developed groundbreaking technology…the implementation of virtualization technology offered by Futurex can help trust providers to strengthen their processing architecture and provide their customers with a more secure environment for sensitive keys and transactions.”

Did you know that we offer cryptographic processing capabilities via our 13 data center locations worldwide? Strategically located data centers give enterprises and financial services a competitive boost in a number of important ways:

• Lower latency
• Meet regional data residency requirements
• Faster transaction processing speed
• Fulfill compliance mandates including PCI PIN, PCI P2PE, and PCI DSS
• Provide solutions to enable fault tolerance and fail-safe backup

Interested in a consultation with one of our solutions architects? Contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss any of our enterprise data encryption solutions with you.

About Futurex

For over 40 years, Futurex has been a trusted provider of hardened, enterprise-class data security solutions. More than 15,000 organizations worldwide have used Futurex’s innovative hardware security modules, key management system, and cloud HSM solutions to address mission-critical data encryption and our PKI solution.

This is the second blog post in a series of three on migrating your HSM. Read the first blog post here.