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PKWARE products represent highly advanced forms of data compression technology, and operate to reduce file sizes, with no resultant loss of information from the original file, through the removal of data redundancy.
PKWARE itself is the originator and continuing innovator of the widely adopted ZIP standard, and the company has recently extended the ZIP file format through the inclusion of strong security, by implementing its patent-pending SecureZIP technology across all of its products. The SecureZIP enabled products provide best-of-breed security powered by the leading cryptographic technologies in the industry, including RSA BSAFE from RSA Security. PKWARE supports strong data security using passwords or X.509 digital certificates, bridging the gap between Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and non-PKI environments. The company is working to build its profile as an enterprise provider, and its portfolio represents an excellent addition to layered security policies.
LOOK AHEAD
The core competency of the company has traditionally been data compression, which has recently been extended to include tightly controlled security. Further developments for the product family will emphasise these strengths.
X FUNCTIONALITY
It is often the case that security in particular will be deployed in layers around sensitive resource, such as databases and critical servers, and this is an entirely appropriate methodology. It does, however, have the possible flaw that it may overlook the opportunity to manage the data resource itself in a different way, creating an additional and new layer of defence within the solution layers that are protecting the data.
Data compression technologies and security are topics that should, in Butler Group's view, go hand-in-hand at the enterprise level. There are pragmatic and compelling arguments supporting this link, whether they involve securing enterprise data that must be exchanged between remote users, or minimising the bandwidth consumption and costs of such exchanges; the underlying issue is of course that data is an asset that must be closely managed and controlled at all times.
A leader in the data compression space is PKWARE, which is the company that originated the ZIP format, one of the most widely used formats in the world. PKWARE's high efficiency, high performance compression engine offers the benefits of maximum reduction in file size (in some cases up to 95%), and this is coupled with minimal data processing time. However, this enormous market penetration is most closely associated with the desktop level and single users, and this is a view that badly underestimates the scope of the company's portfolio. One of two significant differentiators for the company is that it acts as the single provider of compression functionality across all major enterprise computing platforms (Windows desktops and servers, UNIX/Linux, iSeries, and zSeries), and it also provides full interoperability across these platforms. As a result, a file ZIPped on a Windows desktop can be extracted and manipulated on the mainframe, a ZIP archive created on an iSeries can be opened and the files decompressed on a UNIX server, and all permutations between. PKZIP? can transparently manage any necessary language, code page, and other translations, and it can play an important role in supporting the operation of an enterprise Extraction, Transform, and Loading (ETL) infrastructure.
The second differentiator lies in the creation and enforcement of secure policy in the usage of enterprise data. In addition to enabling access to its portfolio through clear and simple to use interfaces, PKWARE has developed a strategic technology partnership with RSA Security, one of the leading global providers of security solutions, and PKWARE now integrates RSA's BSAFE cryptographic and certificate handling libraries with its PKZIP? interfaces. As an example of how this integration supports business users, this enables desktop users to digitally sign and strongly encrypt e-mail attachments and file archives on local or network drives, with a choice of using either passwords or X.509 digital certificates using PKWARE's SecureZIP technology. Policy can be set centrally, and will be enforced across the entire distributed enterprise in a manner that users cannot circumvent; therefore the administrator can guarantee compliance to the set e-mail policy.
SecureZIP is the first result of the close technology partnership with RSA, and includes advanced capabilities that operate well within a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) framework.
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