‘Given India’s burgeoning financial services market, there will be no shortage of opportunities for innovative cryptographic solutions’

Having established a significant data center presence in Hyderabad and Mumbai, Futurex , a mission-critical data encryption and key-management player looks forward to pursuing new challenges and opportunities within the Indian market, whether they concern cloud or on-premises HSM and key management solutions.

Speaking exclusive to Express Computer, Texas based Adam Cason, Vice President of Global and Strategic Alliances, Futurex talks about the changing payments landscape; especially now that cloud payment HSMs are readily available, including through public cloud marketplaces, organizations are able to fully migrate their payment ecosystem to the cloud

Where do you see maximum adoption of Cloud Payment HSM coming from? What is driving the adoption of Cloud payment HSM services and why?

Within the field of hardware-based security, a steady evolution is taking place. Regulatory requirements mandating the use of strong cryptography are expanding, while many smaller organizations within the financial and tech sectors are looking for ways to secure their applications at a reasonable cost. These factors, as well as general market conditions, are driving a global trend toward increased cloud adoption. However, finance and tech aren’t the only markets seeing this increased adoption, which is taking place across several market verticals at once.

What kind of investment is required to create world class Cloud HSM Payment infrastructure? Where does India stand vs the rest of the world in terms of adoption of Cloud Payment HSMs?

India is well known as a global hub for transaction processing and financial services, with thousands of emerging fintechs competing for market share. Cloud solutions are more appealing to these smaller organizations due to the lower cost and faster implementation. However, some hesitancy to adopt cloud solutions can be observed among larger organizations with legacy processing infrastructure. This hesitancy is twofold: on the one hand, migrating legacy infrastructure is a big decision. On the other hand, India’s comprehensive data residency laws require organizations to use cloud solutions that are based in India, and that don’t store data internationally. In fact, it was in response to this latter obstacle that Futurex established data centers in India to better serve its clients in the region who have need of cloud solutions.

What is your suggestion to CTOs/CIOs/CISOs looking to migrate their payment HSMs?

The biggest obstacles are inertia and compliance, with our solution compliance issues have already been accounted for. Migrating to the cloud is an easy way to reduce costs, both in terms of expenditures and management effort. But an effectively managed cloud solution is the key to maximizing ROI. A trusted vendor can help organizations design and deploy an efficient and well-managed cloud solution that will provide on-demand cryptographic infrastructure for the foreseeable future.

Where do you see Cloud Payment HSM in India 5 years down the line? What according to you can be done to further boost Cloud Adoption in the country?

In establishing data centers throughout India, Futurex took the necessary first steps to provide organizations in the region with powerful and efficient cloud solutions. We’ve seen success with this initiative and expect that trend to continue. But markets are big ships to turn; while cloud adoption may not storm the market overnight, it will inevitably gain traction as companies see the returns in their cloud investments.

What are Futurex’s offerings in the payment HSM and Cloud Payment HSM space? Please elaborate your plans for the market.

Futurex has been developing, manufacturing, and implementing payment HSM technology for over 40 years. We currently have customer-focused cryptographic solution suite, comprising HSMs for payments and general-purpose encryption, key management servers, and infrastructure management tools. Our solutions can be deployed on-premises as well as through our VirtuCrypt cloud platform. What sets our solutions apart is their near-universal support for different APIs, cryptographic algorithms, and international compliance standards.

What has been the journey of the company in India? Could you share your existing business model?

For over 40 years, Futurex has remained the trusted global provider of hardened enterprise-class data security solutions. Over 15,000 business and financial organizations use the company’s innovative cryptography and tokenization solutions to address mission-critical data encryption and key-management needs. Futurex has long-running partnership throughout India, including both payment solutions providers, channel distributors, and resellers. When we established a significant data center presence in Mumbai and Hyderabad, it was with the intention of bringing our innovative solutions to an already fast-growing market in need of fresh options.

How do Cloud Payment HSMs work? What are their advantages over on-premises payment HSM?

Cloud HSMs use the technological framework of physical HSMs to deliver the same cryptographic functionality and level of security through a cloud platform. The advantages in cloud payment HSMs lies in the on-demand agility of the cloud, as well as its relatively lower cost to entry: cloud payment HSM solutions are fairly simple to deploy and can be scaled according to need.

With cloud-based encryption and key management accelerating, we’ll see more payment processing in the cloud. What are some of the challenges and opportunities you see for your business? 

Between Futurex’s industry-leading technology, highly knowledgeable sales team, and tried-and-true support staff, all of whom are accustomed to international markets, we are fairly well versed in taking on new challenges. In the Indian market, these challenges present themselves more as opportunities, with larger enterprises deciding whether to refresh their legacy infrastructures with on-premises hardware or cloud HSM solutions, and smaller organizations like fintechs searching for affordable yet robust security cloud services. Fortunately, Futurex’s solution suite is versatile enough to accommodate these needs, and our local data center presence makes cloud solutions more viable than ever.