WinMagic - Experts & Thought Leaders

WinMagic, global encryption solutions provider, has announced the launch of its latest software release, SecureDoc 8.2. Purpose-built for a new, unified approach to encryption and key management, SecureDoc 8.2 will enable industry-leading data security across endpoints, data centres, hyper-converged infrastructures and into the cloud – and view it all from a Single Pane of Glass. The launch of SecureDoc 8.2 represents another step forward for its suite of SecureDoc encryption solutions SecureDoc 8.2 software For over 20 years, WinMagic has built and continually evolved SecureDoc Enterprise Server to meet the needs of evolving enterprises. From its early years as a full disk encryption provider to a recent shift into protecting virtualised and cloud environments, WinMagic is constantly improving its software solutions to deliver comprehensive and unified encryption to simplify data security for customers, from small businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises and everything in between. The launch of SecureDoc 8.2 represents another step forward for its suite of SecureDoc encryption solutions. In fact, in recognition of its innovation towards meeting the next generation of data security challenges, WinMagic was earlier this week awarded the Cyber Defense Magazine InfoSec Award for Cloud Security – Next Gen. SecureDoc 8.2 enables a fundamental shift in how our customers will control and manage their encryption and keys” “SecureDoc 8.2 enables a fundamental shift in how our customers will control and manage their encryption and keys,” says Thi Nguyen-Huu, CEO, WinMagic. “Our unique Single Pane of Glass provides true unification between our endpoint and cloud security platforms, giving customers a single point to view their entire encrypted environment, from endpoints to IoT, even servers and virtual machines in mixed cloud environments – all on one screen.” Cloud Virtual Machines WinMagic's SecureDoc 8.2 software release introduces a rich interactive dashboard that helps organisations save critical time and operational costs by unifying auditing and reporting across their complex, hybrid infrastructure into a single report. The dashboard provides unified visibility into the encryption status of endpoints and cloud Virtual Machines (VM), generates audit reports from all supported platforms and puts them on one screen, speeds time-to-market for virtualised applications, and lowers development cost through access to data from all supported platforms. SecureDoc 8.2 also contains a wide range of new and improved features for customers that help them to simplify deployments, adopt flexible encryption options, and improve data-centric security across the organisation.

New research from WinMagic, the data security company, surveying over 1,000 IT Decision Makers (ITDM) about hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) has revealed flexibility (65%), performance (58%) and availability (46%) as the highest ranked benefits of the technology. However, the survey also highlighted ITDM concerns around expanding their use of HCI, with complexity leading at 45% and security, a close second (43%). Currently, only 15% of respondents’ report have any HCI technology in their infrastructure. Yet, the HCI market is expected to expand, with Gartner stating that “By 2021, hyper-converged integrated systems (HCIS) will represent 54% of total converged infrastructure shipments by revenue, with HCIS reaching $10.8 billion.” (Hype Cycle for Storage Technologies, July 2017). ITDMs are clearly seeing the benefits of HCI technology, so what is holding them back from using it more? Deployed with the correct controls, HCI can be one of the best ways to simplify data centre infrastructure Simplifying data centre infrastructure Deployed with the correct controls, HCI can be one of the best ways to simplify data centre infrastructure. However, its dynamic nature and reliance on virtual machines creates challenges such as how to unify security and control data sprawl as IT departments struggle to maintain control as workloads expand. ITDMs highlighted four areas, making them reluctant to include HCI as part of their future infrastructure plans: Increased complexity of IT infrastructure (45%) Maintaining security across HCI environments (43%) Maintaining management control as HCI scales across the business (39%) The lack of an ability to manage virtual machines in hybrid environments (34%) Risks from security shorcuts A quarter (27%) of respondents admitted to not limiting access to the control planes of their hyper-converged infrastructure. Rather than encrypting individual workloads, many are simply encrypting the whole platform, ignoring the need for encryption and access controls to certain sensitive datasets. The result is that unfettered access may be given to workloads that should be geo- or time restricted, leaving a company at risk of breaking its governance, regulatory and compliance obligations. In addition, there were other areas of concern relating to security when using HCIs, such as: Having a security solution that scales with our needs (29%) Ensuring compatibility with any type of hypervisor technology (23%) Maintaining identity access management and authentication (22%) Unified approach to security management “Hyper-converged infrastructure offers a wide range of benefits for IT departments and they want to embrace the technology, but often the security and management concerns make it feel like a risky investment,” said Mark Hickman, Chief Operating Officer at WinMagic.WinMagic SecureDoc Enterprise offers 100% encryption of endpoints, data centre and cloud workloads with a single platform “The truth is the benefits can be easily realised by IT teams, if a unified approach is taken to security and management, through a single tool where they are dependent, not separate tasks. In reality, this approach should extend beyond the hyperconverged hardware to the whole infrastructure whether on premises or in the cloud." "WinMagic SecureDoc Enterprise offers 100% encryption of endpoints, data centre and cloud workloads with a single platform, meaning data is protected across the enterprise while IT leaders are free to deliver the enormous benefits of hyperconvergence.”

WinMagic, an encryption and intelligent key management security solution provider, and LogicDS, which offers SWIMAGE—the only true, commercial off the shelf end-to-end automated operating system (OS) migration and deployment solution—announce that they are partnering to jointly offer WinMagic’s SecureDoc encryption and key management with the SWIMAGE OS migration and imaging solution. This jointly-deployed solution will significantly reduce the headaches and security concerns organisations have when deploying new devices into their network, performing OS migration, and handling maintenance issues. SWIMAGE enables OS migration while encrypted with SecureDoc, increasing security posture, and providing a truly unique solution that no one else can offer. Managing the lifecycle of operating systems is a constant nuisance in large organisations. Existing processes are often very manual, lack coordination, and are heavily reliant on end-users. These challenges result in some of the biggest and most expensive pain points a company goes through, and can lead to significant data security issues, including loss of data, breach, and even compliance failure. By teaming up, WinMagic and Logic DS will significantly reduce these concerns and complexities, allowing organisations to focus on what’s most important—growing their business. SWIMAGE helps organisations proactively adopt change quickly Secure and efficient OS migration SWIMAGE empowers users or IT administrators to migrate devices from Windows 7 to Windows 10—a prominent challenge most organisations currently face—often in less than an hour. SWIMAGE minimises the downtime typically associated with OS migration by simplifying the migration process, allowing for self-migration for those on the network, or via a USB migration kit for those in remote or home-based offices. Users, domains and applications are all provisioned automatically in the process, enabling greater control over which applications users can have installed on their device. For greater certainty, OS migrations are completely reversible if something goes wrong. “SWIMAGE was developed to provide maximum efficiency and optimisation of OS migration, reimaging and deployment processes for large, complex environments through automation and process refinement. Based on over a decade of lessons learned from helping our customers with their deployments, SWIMAGE helps organisations proactively adopt change quickly to remain secure, stay competitive and profitable,” according to Kyle Haroldsen, CEO, LogicDS and lead architect of SWIMAGE. “Generally thought of as an end-user technology tool, the combination of WinMagic’s SecureDoc with SWIMAGE enables security and end user departments to work together to ensure that the latest, most secure, and patched OS is always deployed, creating the most secure IT environment for the organisation.” By jointly deploying SWIMAGE and SecureDoc, companies can ensure data protection during imaging and re-imaging Felxible data security and management solution Data security is a critical deliverable in today’s business world. Increasing data regulations and pressure from customers to protect their data is rightfully forcing organisations to leverage solutions that can help protect data wherever it is in the organisation, regardless of its state—in use, in movement, in storage or in archive. Migrating secure encrypted data has been problematic for organisations, but with WinMagic’s SecureDoc encryption and key management deployed as part of the SWIMAGE solution, businesses can eliminate risks, ensuring systems and information remain secure before, during, and after migration. With SWIMAGE data remains local to the system and does not need to be moved to network storage devices. WinMagic’s SecureDoc provides enterprises with a flexible and high-performing data security solution that manages data wherever it is stored—on laptops, desktops, self-encrypting drives, USBs, physical and virtualised servers, and in the cloud. By jointly deploying SWIMAGE and SecureDoc, companies can ensure that all of their data is protected during imaging and re-imaging processes, with complete visibility to the encryption status of their devices at all times. Reduced deployment time “Historically, for many organisations, migrating operating systems meant an extended period of time, sometimes days, in which data wouldn’t be protected, due to the need to decrypt and then re-encrypt that data. Coupled with a general unease in the whole migration process, we routinely see organisations delay much needed migrations as result,” states Marty Milbert, VP of Enterprise Solutions, WinMagic. “With this partnership, our customers will now be able to take advantage of SWIMAGE’s exceptional ability to reduce the time and effort required to deploy new devices and manage through OS migrations gaining more clarity and control than they’ve ever had in the process. And by having SecureDoc coupled as their encryption and key management solution, they can have complete confidence in knowing that their data will remain protected.”