IBM/VeriSign deal offers hosted security

IBM Global Services and security expert VeriSign have announced a partnership to offer hosted security services and consulting, but analysts do not believe that the agreement will resurrect the fortunes of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).

The pair explained that they had come together to jointly develop security offerings for safer ebusiness, create a services alliance for the deployment of PKI and collaborate on web services in a bid to advance key security standards, such as XML Key Management Specification and Security Assertions Markup Language.

In an interview with vnunet.com, Bob Korzeniewski, executive vice president of corporate business development at VeriSign, said that the move would enable companies previously put off by the entry price and technicality of implementing PKI to get involved.

"We've issued over 350,000 digital signatures so far," he said. "We want to provide an outsourced option for organisations wishing to make the most of identity, authentication and authorisation services without the heavy up-front investment in the secure infrastructure required to deliver such services."

But José López, a security analyst for market watcher Frost & Sullivan, said that the deal would not set the world on fire.

"For the IT manager it's just another global agreement which probably means more to VeriSign than for IBM Global Services," he explained. "It's not a bad move, but even PKI vendors don't know where to go with the technology at the moment, there's such confusion in the market."