Security Startup Gets All Cryptic

After raising $14 million in Series C funding earlier this year, startup Ingrian Networks Inc. has unveiled its latest data center security software, aimed at improving database encryption.

With the advent of legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), companies are coming under increasing pressure to ensure that the data they hold is totally secure (see Gartner: Sarbanes Struggle Continues and NetScaler Helps Solucient Save Servers ).

The Redwood City, Calif.-based firm has enhanced the software that runs on its flagship DataSecure appliances, offering data center managers automated encryption of databases from vendors such as IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL). This aims to eliminate the time-consuming process of modifying the applications linked to the database, something that has become a real hassle for IT managers.

Instead, the latest release automatically installs all the required software on the database, according to Ingrian execs. A Web-based user interface has also been added in an attempt to ease the strain on IT managers. Jon Oltsik, senior analyst at The Enterprise Strategy Group Inc., believes this is a step in the right direction. This is making it much easier to use their technology: By providing more visibility and tools to automate the task, you don’t need your coders involved.”

Another feature of the new software is automatic encryption of blocks of data, containing, for example, customers’ financial information. As these are migrated from (unencrypted) plain text to (encrypted) cipher text, the software changes the database schema to accommodate the new columns. With security demands on users increasing almost daily, Oltsik believes that ease of use is becoming a key selling point. “The more seamless you can make a security product, the more effective it is,” he says.Oltsik also believes that, while Ingrian is the only vendor offering these types of products, the future looks bright for the company. “As a startup, it’s tough to blaze a trail on your own, but the level of application and database knowledge they have is very good.”

Founded in 1999, Ingrian has so far amassed over $40 million in funding, and the next few months look to be busy ones for the company. Karim Toubba, Ingrian’s vice president of product marketing and management, tells NDCF that a new hardware release is planned for spring 2005, which will feature a much faster BUS, faster processors, more RAM, and more connectivity.

Ingrian’s software development teams are also hard at work planning a new software release for December, which will boost DataSecure’s ability to encrypt and decrypt data, according to Toubba. Currently, the platform can handle 2,000 operations per second, although with the new release this will rise to 6,000, he says.

However, the current figures are not independently audited and are instead based on internal testing and customer implementations.

— James Rogers, Site Editor, Next-Gen Data Center Forum0