Hardware-based encryption market revenue to hit $36.4 billion

There are a number of ways for companies to secure data – whether on the perimeter or within the local area network (LAN). However, as ABI Research analysts recently confirmed, the most fundamental method in a defense-in-depth model is hardware encryption.

“The advantage of hardware-based solutions is that they bypass many of the typical drawbacks of software-based solutions like performance degradation or vulnerability to attacks aimed at the encryption key stored in memory,” the analysts explained.

“Because encryption is available at drive-level, this solution is not dependent on any software or operating system used, and usually cannot be turned off by users. Examples of storage products that use hardware-based encryption include hard drives, self-encrypting drives and USB flash drives.”

According to ABI Research, a number of industry players, including Rambus, offer innovative and interesting solutions in the hardware-based encryption market. Indeed, organizations across all sectors face an increasing number of regulations and requirements to protect data from unauthorized access – both internally and externally.

“One of the key sectors where hardware encryption will be rapidly adopted is healthcare,” said Monolina Sen, ABI Research’s Senior Analyst in Digital Security.

“Health organizations are likely to be vulnerable targets because they are slower to adopt measures like keeping personal information in separate databases that can be closed off in the event of an attack.”

More specifically, says Sen, more and more healthcare organizations can be expected to choose hardware-based encryption technologies, along with other security measures, to ensure that data remains encrypted to all but those authorized to access it.

“Government, defense, and intelligence agencies are also under intense pressure to comply with a lengthening list of legislative requirements and protocols designed to protect sensitive data in transit and at rest,” Sen concluded.

Additional sectors where hardware encrypted products will be adopted include financial services, the consumer electronics sector, communication networking security, as well as the automotive and transportation sector. In total, ABI Research expects the global hardware encryption market revenue to hit $36.4 billion by the end of 2015.