Entrust acquires HyTrust, with aim to improve data encryption solutions

Entrust has acquired HyTrust, a provider of data encryption and key management solutions, adding a crucial extra layer of encryption, cryptographic keys, and cloud security policy to its own digital security solutions.

The identity and data protection company says the acquisition will bolster its effort to deliver data protection and compliance solutions to its customers, while accelerating their digital transformations.

Entrust will inherit HyTrust's expertise in security controls automation for software-defined computing, as well as its customers who benefit from improved security posture through automation, prevention of unplanned outages, and security policy enforcement.

"Enterprises are rapidly transforming to take advantage of the efficiencies and scale of cloud computing," says Entrust president and CEO Todd Wilkinson.

"In doing so, data protection and compliance are top of mind. That's why we are excited to bring the HyTrust team and solutions to Entrust.

"HyTrust solutions help enterprises manage, automate and scale security controls across computing environments," says Wilkinson.

"Now, customers can turn to Entrust as a single source for high-assurance data protection, identity and compliance solutions that allow enterprises to encrypt data and enforce security policy across virtualised, public and hybrid cloud environments."

Based in Mountain View, California and founded in 2007, HyTrust partners include VMware, IBM, Cisco, Intel, Google, Amazon, and In-Q-Tel. Around 50 employees from HyTrust will join Entrust following the acquisition.

As part of the acquisition, Entrust and HyTrust have partnered on solutions that combine solutions from both companies — for example, Entrust's nShield hardware security modules and Hytrust's DataControl and KeyControl cryptographic key management servers (KMS).

Joining these solutions automates cryptographic key management, the companies say, allowing customers to generate and control encryption key lifecycles at scale.

It is these kinds of joint solutions that Entrust seeks to implement in the future as a result of the acquisition, along with plans to accelerate security and compliance solutions for on-premise, hybrid, virtualised and multi-cloud environments.

HyTrust president and co-founder Eric Chiu says he and the company are excited about the acquisition.

"We are extremely pleased for HyTrust to join the Entrust team. Entrust is an established leader in data protection, identity and payment security solutions, with the crypto expertise and global reach to expand and support our solutions around the world," says Chiu, who joins Entrust as part of the acquisition.

"As multi-cloud deployments become more commonplace, organisations struggle to protect cloud infrastructure and data. Our integrated solutions enable enterprises to harness the power of cloud platforms without sacrificing security and compliance.

Entrust senior vice president and general manager for identity and data protection Cindy Provin says the acquisition will add real value to Entrust's solutions.

"Having expertise in data encryption, key management and cloud security policy under one roof delivers powerful benefits to our collective customers – improving their security posture and meeting compliance requirements while simplifying encryption and key management across environments," says Provin.

"We look forward to working with the HyTrust team, its partners and customers.