EMC and RSA merger will pave way to ‘greater integration’

Wednesday 07 February 2007 03:39

The merger of storage companyEMC and security companyRSAwill allow the combined organisation to offer integrated technologies that will cost less for IT departments to run, the companies claimed today.

RSA president Art Coviello said RSA was working to integrate security technologies into EMC's storage products that would reduce the cost of running and maintaining secure networks.

He predicted that encryption would quickly become a commodity product as it becomes more commonplace.

The biggest challenge for businesses will not be encrypting data but identifying the sensitive data in their organisations, he said.

"There is a gigantic information management problem. When you go into companies and talk about their perimeter defences, nine out of 10 companies, say they are comfortable. If you ask them what they have to do to protect their information, they get nervous. They don't know where their information is in the organisation"

Customers were sick and tired of suppliers offering incomplete solutions rather than integrated products, said Coviello.

RSA was working to incorporate two factor authentication into a range of mobile devices, including PDAs and phones, that will begin to be rolled out in organisations over the next year to secure access to networks, he said.

The company is also investigating how it can use pattern recognition technologies to prevent data leaking out of organisations.

Joe Tucci, chief executive of EMC, said the merger between the two companies followed direct pressure from customers who wanted storage technologies that could also encrypt data, offer better access control, and log how data is accessed and used in their organisations.

He said EMC had now reached a critical mass in the right technologies and there were no plans for any further mergers with major technology suppliers, although there might be one or two smaller acquisitions.

Ultimately encryption would become fast enough to enable data to be encrypted on the fly, without the need for complex systems to manage the process, he said.