Software Encryption Companies as Competitors
I don't believe this is an admission of any demise. This is an "admission" that they are moving right in to Wave’s space. I think a serious discussion of how Wave can compete with these companies would be very helpful.
The software encryption companies have thousands of customers and millions of seats which they will do all they can to hold on to. And since encryption has suddenly become so big and companies now want it for their legacy machines as well as their new ones, the software encryption companies will get more and more customers. This is the whole point as to why the software encryption companies are suddenly in the catbird seat. And the article shows that they see clearly in what direction they have to move.
Time may be important here. Does Wave have time to establish some kind of a position here with a large base of customers? Is that what is needed to compete? And let's just put it out there: the government is starting in on software encryption. Why would they switch to Wave once Seagate and TPM's are supported by the software encryption companies?
These are real questions which I think we need to address.
If there is anyone who has ideas on a timeline here or a path for Wave to compete once these companies come in to the space, it would be most helpful.
Putting our heads in the sand will do us no good.
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In the excerpt, Pollman’s statement could be construed to mean that they will be focusing only on encrypton and not the TPM, which would be a help to Wave, but that seems very unlikely. With Intel putting both encryption and a TPM in vPro, they almost certainly will manage both.
And of course this passage is not saying they will be competing in five years. It is saying they are working now with Seagate and Intel and five years from now they will be a different company. (The link is in Weby's post # 156839.)
"Where does this leave software encryption companies like Credant, Utimaco, PGP, and Safeboot (recently acquired by McAfee) and Check Point (which acquired Pointsec)? Recognizing that their boom will last only as long as it takes hardware-based encryption to take hold, they are partnering with Seagate and Intel to offer integrated solutions. While the hardware companies handle the encryption processing, software vendors will focus on what they day do best--policy creation and implementation, key management, etc.
" 'In five years, we probably won't sell encryption software,' said Malte Pollman, Utimaco vice president of products, but key and other management services for Intel, Seagate and any other hardware encryption companies."
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