Thinking out of the box

Pre-configured PKI products can offer resellers new revenue opportunities, reduced sales cycles and increased up-sell potential.

Network security is becoming a more accessible market for Vars as out-of-the-box solutions remove the heavy lifting associated with public key infrastructure (PKI) deployment.

New revenue streams are opening up as this technology becomes viable for a wider audience and sales are becoming more straightforward as the complexity of deployment falls.

Businesses are increasingly using web-based initiatives to streamline processes and create new sources of revenue.

Whenever valuable or sensitive information resides on the web, companies must be confident that the information is secure and that access rights are tightly controlled.

PKI, consisting of digital certificates and digital signatures, addresses these concerns.

Digital signatures offer assurances about the source and accuracy of data, and enable users to identify other users, while encryption guarantees the confidentiality of information.

However, while very open and flexible, PKI can be costly and complex to implement and use.

For these reasons, there has been a move towards integrating PKI into applications.

Last July analyst Datamonitor, in its report PKI: Re-positioning the product in light of disappointing market revenues, claimed: "Given the necessity of relating PKI to real business needs, it is prudent to market the technology around a set of core business applications.

"Developing industry expertise in vertical markets that undertake high-volume, high-value business-to-business and business-to- consumer transactions will also be of benefit, as will ensuring pricing models avoid any customer confusion."

This new approach addresses security needs in basic but critical business applications such as email and virtual private networks, ensuring companies can secure and control access to sensitive information and resources.

These products are pre-configured and designed for out-of-the-box delivery.

This allows organisations to deploy a smaller system that delivers immediate business value but can be extended over time as security requirements and budgets increase.

This not only broadens the market for PKI but offers resellers new revenue opportunities, reduced sales cycles and increased up-sell potential.

Richard Kinsella is product marketing manager for the global solutions group at Baltimore Technologies.