CSPi Announces ARIA microHSM: A Highly Scalable and Cost-Effective, NIC-based Encryption and Key Management Reference Design

BOSTON, April 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CSPi (NASDAQ:CSPi), a provider of security solutions, packet capture products and IT managed services, announced today the release of microHSM,  at the 2018 RSA Conference, a new capability of the ARIA(TM) SDS platform - microHSM - providing full encryption and key management onto a CSPi Myricom ARC Secure Intelligent Adapter (SIA) FIPs-protected NIC.  

By offloading this advanced security capability onto the Myricom SIA, microHSM not only replaces the need for a standalone HSM appliance, but it also improves application performance, decreases network latency and is deployable within any server. This approach saves customers 50 percent cost and delivers performance gains of up to ten times more than a traditional hardware security module (HSM). Additionally, the ARIA microHSM capability leverages industry leading key management technology from KeyNexus, combined with robust key management interoperability protocol (KMIP) capabilities from P6R to deliver a simple and seamless end-to-end KMIP experience not seen in the industry today.   

"Our ARIA microHSM capability provides a secure, easy and low cost way for organizations to adopt and manage KMIP-based software encryption applications and still maintain a fully secured KMS server," said Gary Southwell, general manager, CSPi. "Others who wish to have the encryption functions, as well as the key management executed on our SIA will still have the full benefits of an HSM appliance outputting encrypted data at 40G but without the expense, latency and footprint."

There has been sizable market consolidation and lack of technology investment in the HSM market, resulting in stagnant, yet expensive solutions. Customers who rely on HSM appliances for highly-secure data encryption are faced with extremely high costs when rolling out such a solution at scale. In many cases, customers are forced to be reliant on out-of-date technology due to the lack of options. This leaves a gap in the market - a need for a plug-and-play, low-cost solution that can provide low latency and wire rate encryption speeds with all the security they expect from a FIPS 140-2 level 3-compliant HSM.

CSPi, in partnership with KeyNexus and P6R, has developed such a solution - ARIA microHSM. Leveraging KeyNexus' expertise in simple to deploy Universal Key Management, P6R's standards based KMIP technology, and CSPi's leadership in high-speed, intelligent adapters form a superior approach to fulfilling encryption and key management requirements.

"We believe that CSPi's microHSM with built-in KMIP technology is a potential game changer in both the key management and HSM marketplace," said Jim Susoy, chief executive officer, P6R. "The approach of merging KMIP and HSM functionality into a single endpoint is the future of these technologies and CSPi is leading the way."

ARIA microHSM empowers end users with an easy-to-use solution to manage encryption keys across the enterprise, including public, private, hybrid or multicloud environments. ARIA microHSM runs on a Myricom SIA NIC card that can be inserted into any PCIe server slot. 

"The ARIA microHSM delivers much-needed innovation in the key management and HSM markets where the need to secure keys and data across a multitude of on-premise, cloud and SaaS environments has altered the traditional landscape for enterprises," said Jeff MacMillan, chief executive officer, KeyNexus. "Combining the power and secure architecture of CSPi's SIA with KeyNexus' unified key management approach delivers the performance, relevance and disruption enterprises have been seeking for years."

This approach is compelling as it not only eliminates the need to purchase a separate proprietary, single-function appliance but it is also highly scalable. Since the ARC SIA plugs into any server, it is simple to deploy additional ARIA microHSMs and have all instances centrally managed by a single ARIA SDS orchestrator. Having the HSM functionality resident in the server reduces latency, as well as network-connectivity issues. By offloading the encryption functions onto the Myricom SIA, application performance is improved. It's easy to deploy the SIA where and when needed as it fits in already existing equipment while doubling as a high speed NIC card. 

ARIA microHSM provides:

• Up to ten times the performance at half the cost when compared to an HSM appliance
• The industry's most flexible KMS via KeyNexus
• Open KMIP with a large ecosystem of KMIP-capable applications
• Full FIPS 140-2 level 3 capability
• 40Gb hardware accelerated encryption at line rate
• The ability to be deployed in minutes in any standard server

To learn more about CSPi's security solutions, including ARIA SDS and ARIA microHMS:

• Visit CSPi at the RSA Conference in booth #3124 in the , North Hall on the exhibit floor.

Contact Marketing@CSPi.com to schedule an onsite meeting with our expert security team.

About CSPi

CSPi (NASDAQ:CSPI) maintains two distinct and dynamic divisions - the High Performance Products, including the Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, and Technology Solutions - with a shared vision for technology excellence. CSPi's cybersecurity solutions protect an organization's critical assets to minimize, or remove, the impact of the inevitable data breach.  Our ARIA Software Defined Security platform solves the complexities associated with securing devops environments, while our Myricom nVoy Series appliances provide automated breach identification and notification, enabled by the 10G dropless packet capture inherent in our Myricom^® ARC intelligent adapters. CSPi's Technology Solutions division helps clients achieve their business goals and accelerate time to market through innovative IT solutions and security services by partnering with best in class technology providers. For organizations that want the benefits of an IT department without the cost, we offer a robust catalog of Managed IT Services providing 24x365 proactive support. Our team of engineers have expertise across majors industries supporting five key technology areas: Advanced Security; Communication and Collaboration; Data Center; Networking and Wireless & Mobility. For more information, please visit www.cspi.com.

Myricom and ARIA are trademarks of CSPi Inc. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective owners.

Contact Information:
Amy Carey
CSPi
Email: amy.carey@cspi.com

About KeyNexus:

KeyNexus was created to provide centralized, flexible encryption key storage and management. Distributed compute paradigms (including public, private and hybrid clouds), virtualization, IoT and shared compute models have created enormous opportunity for enterprises and organizations to benefit from scalable and more economical consumption of technology. In order to manage diverse and distributed keys for existing and new encryption processes, KeyNexus offers an innovative universal key management (UKM) platform that allows our customers to centrally manage authentication and encryption keys from a single platform deployable in virtually any environment on-premise or in the cloud.

Press Contact: 
Paul Lechner 
E: plechner(at)keynexus.net 
T: +1-250-474-2242

About P6R:

P6R provides multi-platform solutions to a broad range of businesses. P6R partners with itsour customers in an ongoing relationship to develop successful solutions that deliver the highest levels of quality and customer value. P6R's Client and Server KMIP SDKs provide support for KMIP versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, and 2.0. P6R's SDKs are available for Linux and Windows and run on Intel and ARM processors. P6R's PKCS 11 provider (version 2.40) supports many commercially available HSMs as well as supporting a KMIP adaptor allowing PKCS 11 applications to use a KMIP server instead of an HSM. P6R is a Sponsor member of the OASIS KMIP and PKCS 11 Technical committees.

Press Contact: Jim Susoy 
E: jim(at)p6r.com 
P: +1-888-452-2580

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements, as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including those relating to the products and services described herein. You can identify these statements by the use of the words "may," "will," "could," "should," "would," "plans," "expects," "anticipates," "continue," "estimate," "project," "intend," "likely," "forecast," "probable," "potential," and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. The Company cautions that numerous factors could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements made by the Company. Such risks include general economic conditions, market factors, competitive factors and pricing pressures, and others described in the Company's filings with the SEC. Please refer to the section on forward-looking statements included in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.