Dell filled a need in its cloud services lineup Dec. 18 when it agreed to acquire Credant Technologies, a provider of data protection software that manages and secures data sent from endpoints to servers, storage or cloud systems. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Credant’s IT will be used to improve the manageability and security of Dell’s entire enterprise computing portfolio, Dell said.
Founded in 2001, Credant is headquartered in Addison, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Dell has had a longstanding joint development partnership and OEM agreement with the company and already uses its software in the Dell Data Protection/Encryption package.
Credant software protects data across its full life cycle. It encrypts user and corporate data and works with enterprises’ existing systems-management processes. The applications also support multiple mobile operating systems, allowing enterprises to handle the growing bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend.
Credant secures more than 2 million endpoints with customers in a number of verticals that include aerospace and defense, energy, financial services, universities, public sector, health care, telecommunications, IT and media, Dell said.
Credant’s products feature:
—Simplified Security Management: It uses a single console for full end-user ecosystem PC, tablets, external media, mobile devices and public clouds.
—Flexible data protection: Protects wherever data goes from smartphone to the cloud, including core PC device data, largest variety of removable media, self-encrypting drives, Microsoft BitLocker clients, mobile devices and end-user data in the cloud.
—Ease in deployment and provisioning: Provisions users up to 5.5x faster than competitive solutions, saving more than three hours per PC, Dell said. Users can remotely manage endpoint encryption and authentication policies from a single console.
—High levels of security and protection: The Dell Hardware Encryption Accelerator equips end-user systems with military-grade protection. It also reaches the highest level of U.S. Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) certification for endpoint disk encryption commercially available, 140-2 Level 3.
Bob Heard, Credant’s CEO and founder, will remain with Dell in an executive capacity.