IronKey's Trusted Access - The Answer to Extended Enterprise Management?

Enterprise boundaries are being redefined with expanding enterprise perimeters reshaping the future of corporate IT and more challenges and parameters coming into play. IronKey's (News - Alert) newly unveiled Trusted Access Service is touted as being capable of meeting the new challenges of the extended enterprise head-on.

Trusted Access is an on-demand service that enables organizations to manage this extended enterprise by delivering dramatic cost savings and helping to transform the role of IT.

Two current trends seem to be making headlines. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and SaaS (News - Alert) cloud applications have come to be regarded as a means to transform IT in an extended enterprise as they have reduced or eliminated enterprise issued endpoints, operation costs and maintenance expenses, according to research analysts.

With research findings suggesting that 50 percent of the average IT budget is spent on operations and maintenance while 61 percent of CIOs are trying to free up budget to spend on new strategic initiatives, enterprises will appear to benefit by resorting to BYOD and SaaS apps.

However, according to a commissioned study conducted by Forrester (News - Alert) Consulting on behalf of IronKey, although BYOD, SaaS, and cloud service are seen as mediums that increase agility and reduce costs, enterprises are reluctant to completely commit themselves because of security concerns.

IronKey's Trusted Access meets the new challenges of the extended enterprise head-on and claims to be able to leverage BYOD and SaaS cloud apps, giving IT an opportunity to reinvent itself.

“Trusted Access eliminates hardware endpoint costs and reduces the need for expensive IT infrastructure, freeing up staff and budget to focus on innovation,” said Ajay Nigam, senior vice president of product management at IronKey.

The press release cites the example of the Virginia Commerce Bank where IronKey's Trusted Access helped staff to use their own devices to connect to public and private cloud applications while ensuring that data security policies are enforced.

With more devices, greater cloud adoption, more cloud users and more cloud applications coming into play, IronKey's Trusted Access services may well prove to be a boon.

In other news, Old Second Bank, with a 140-year history as one of the Chicago region's largest and strongest community banks, is stepping up its protection for customers against escalating threats from cyber thieves targeting ACH, wire transfers and online banking. The wholly-owned subsidiary of Old Second Bancorp will offer its commercial customers IronKey Trusted Access that helps prevent online account takeover, identity theft and payments fraud.