Government buys encryption

Can I get an "Amen?" The General Services Administration just announced that they have selected 10 data encryption companies to "guard sensitive, unclassified data that reside on laptops, mobile computing gadgets and thumb drives."

 The ten companies are:

Mobile Armor's Data Armor

Safeboot's SafeBoot Device Encryption

Information Security's Secret Agent

SafeNet's SafeNet ProtectDrive

Encryption Solution's SkyLOCK At-Rest

Spyrus' Talisman/DS Data Security Suite

WinMagic's SecureDoc

CREDANT's CREDANTMobile Guardian

GuardianEdge's Data Protection Platform

It is an interesting line-up of encryption vendors with some of the usual suspects included and then a few that made it from out of left field and then a few notables that were left off.

Of the surprises on the list:

• Information Security
  • A small player who caters to the federal space
• Encryption Solution
  • Finding information on this company was like pulling teeth. Not much of a presence in the market. However, with government contracts, it's always fun to see who has been doing the most lobbying

 

Of the surprises OFF the list:

• Utimaco
  • With about a quarter of all of the encryption licenses in the world, their absence is definitely noteworthy. Perhaps because their German?
• Pointsec
  • The other 800 pound gorilla in the encryption market. Recent purchase by Checkpoint should have made them more palatable to the government, but I guess they're still too Swedish.

It was good to see WinMagic make the list. They're a good group of guys and I'm sure they worked hard to get this deal.

It appears that Guardian Edge may be back in the good graces of the government after winning and then losing the VA deal. Word is that they are having a lot of problems financially so we'll have to see if this keeps them afloat for awhile longer.

Also, good to see Mobile Armor. I have been hearing a lot of good things about their software and look forward to getting my hands on some of it soon.

To put things into perspective, the deal is worth at least $79 million dollars over the next five years.

On top of all of the government agencies that can get in on this deal, state and local governments can get the same pricing through the winning vendors for their various organizations. This represents a tremendous opportunity for local and state authorities to provide encryption for their user's data at greatly reduced costs.

So if you are a local or state agency, jump on this deal because it is unlikely you will find better pricing on your own.

Michael Mongold

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Comments

[Derek James]

On the contrary, GuardianEdge continues to maintain the VA as a very satisfied customer. The VA has successfully implemented the company’s full disk encryption product on tens of thousands of systems to date. Also, to clarify, the company is not having financial difficulties. GuardianEdge is growing revenue at nearly 100 percent YTY, added more than 200 new customers in 2006, and recently raised over $10M in financing.

[Stephen Cowen]

Hi Michael,

Your mentioned in your message that the cost deal for government agencies should now be great. Can you share what you believe is the costs of these packages. The corporation that I work for pays $50/seat followed by a $10/seat yearly subscription fee. Over the lifetime of a laptop (approx. 4 years) the total cost $80.00. Do you think that in the same range as the government's deal?

Stephen

[Stephen Cowen]

Hi Michael,

Your mentioned in your message that the cost deal for government agencies should now be great. Can you share what you believe is the costs of these packages. The corporation that I work for pays $50/seat followed by a $10/seat yearly subscription fee. Over the lifetime of a laptop (approx. 4 years) the total cost $80.00. Do you think that in the same range as the government's deal?

Stephen

[PHP Encoder]

Yes, Stephen, would be great to know!