Utimaco, Thales, Futurex lead hardware security module OEM

The latest Hardware Security Module OEM competitive assessment by global technology intelligence firm ABI Research provides an unbiased examination and ranking of six prominent Hardware Security Module (HMS) providers. Ranking criteria are split between present-day implementation and forward-looking innovation potential, and include customer flexibility, as-a-service options, partner ecosystem, go-to-market strategies, new applications, form factor, security algorithms, certification and compliance, applications (General Purpose and Payment), and architecture. The companies evaluated and ranked include:

Market Leaders: Utimaco, Thales, Futurex

Mainstream: Entrust, Securosys, Kryptus

“The HSM market is changing rapidly, dynamized by digital transformation strategies driving cloud migration, IoT adoption, and expanded use cases notably in automotive, healthcare and industrial markets. This is propelling highly flexible HSM offerings that can scale easily and adapt quickly to emerging demands,” says Michela Menting, Research Director with ABI Research. “Competitive differentiation is underscored by hybrid deployments, integration capabilities, crypto-agility, and modularity.”

Utimaco scored first overall in the assessment, followed by Thales and Futurex. Utimaco’s leadership is attributable to the fact that it delivers on a vision for a converged HSM platform, abstracting the underlying hardware platform from the applications and thus enabling a highly modular offering.

Thales, a market leader in the digital security space, ranked a close second, with a high-level and comprehensive HSM offering on all fronts, with diverse form factors and varied deployment models to application choice and richness of feature-set.

Futurex came in third, showcasing an extensive payment HSM platform with strong cloud integration and service availability, enabling it to carve itself a particularly successful niche in the HSM market which it is actively expanding.

No competitor in this assessment is lackluster, with the three resulting companies, Entrust, Securosys, and Kryptus scoring well enough to be included in the Mainstream category. Entrust is a strong market contender with a well-established background and deep expertise in the General Purpose HSM space. Swiss visionary startup Securosys impresses with innovating encryption technology and new application usage (and notably in Blockchain), and Kryptus is a breakout domestic company from Brazil expanding rapidly internationally with a highly competitive converged offering.

“While the market leaders are primarily incumbent HSM providers, there is a small flurry of startups emerging to challenge the status-quo, among which Securosys and Kryptus are two of the most notable to have made it into this assessment. The coming year will no doubt see new players entering the market, from niche domestic firms to large service providers, all looking to compete in a security market typified by a growing appetite for HSM applications. From key management and PKI, to identity, authentication, and access control use cases, HSM providers offer the platforms to create trusted foundations that will help secure a continuously expanding digital ecosystem,” concludes Menting. “HSM market competition is thus set to intensify and is set for significant opportunity with the advent of 5G networks and quantum computing.”

These findings are from ABI Research’s Hardware Security Module: OEM competitive assessment report. This report is part of the company’s Cybersecurity Applications research service, which includes research, data, and ABI Insights. Competitive Assessment reports offer comprehensive analysis of implementation strategies and innovation, coupled with market share analysis, to offer unparalleled insight into a company’s performance and standing in comparison to its competitors.

CT Bureau