Unisys launches stealth and secure cloud service

ICT outsourcer, Unisys, is hoping to win over risk-averse customers with the launch of its high-security private cloud offering in Australia.

The Unisys Secure Private Cloud Solution is being aimed at government and enterprise customers wanting a fast and tough-to-hack option. The technology was initially developed for the US military and Australia is one of the few countries able to use the offering under the NATO alliance.

Despite rival vendors such as Fujitsu and IBM recently launching their own separate cloud solutions, Unisys director of real time infrastructure, Paul Allen, insisted the market was ready for its cloud offering because of its increased security.

“Research Unisys has done shows 70 per cent of respondents are saying ‘I’m not putting stuff in the cloud because of security’,” he said.

The solution features session-based 256-bit AES encrypted key generation and bit-splitting to secure and transmit data between servers and the clients. There’s also a ‘stealth’ capability to hide data from packet sniffers.

“Stealth flattens the network so there is no more need for multiple VPNs. It obviously reduces costs from a telecommunications perspective,” Allen said. “You can’t intercept it, you can’t ping the servers that are stealth protected. Even if someone does intercept the packet, because it’s been bit-split and encrypted, the packet means nothing to them so they can’t capture the whole message.”

Unisys will only target companies with over 2000 seats, as well as various government customers. Although Allen said its go-to-market strategy was being reviewed, he could not provide a timetable for completion.

“As a general rule, sub-2000 seat customers do not fall into our target market. However, if a sub-2000 customers came to us, we’re absolutely able to fulfil their requirements,” he said.

“The smallest configuration set is about a $150,000 investment and provides about 150 [virtual machines], so if a company was setting up a greenfield site or going through a refresh, you could drop that straight in.”

Allen said it would be at least 4-6 months before the full solution could be delivered to customers and added the Australian Signals Directorate would have to check the solution and its cryptography components before other government departments could accept it.

But companies willing to base their clouds overseas at Unisys’ Egan, USA and Milton Keynes, UK datacentres are able to sign on immediately. Set global pricing ensures they are not penalised financially.

“We are auditable by third-parties,” Allen said. “We also welcome chief security officers (CSO) bring in ethical hackers and take their best shot at breaking in.”