During its four-decade-long history, US-based Futurex closely observed the security solutions industry’s evolution to anticipate emerging trends. This familiarity with the market helped it adapt to the advancing digitalisation and data security landscape and launch solutions that can balance organisational efficiency while being mindful of data privacy regulations.
The company is now doubling down on its investments in India to support its global clientele’s mission-critical data encryption and key management requirements. It established its Indian outpost in 2017in Mumbai, which was its second international location after it opened its Mexico City office in July 2016.
Futurex's VP of Global Business Development, Ryan Smith, and Chief Solutions Architect, David Close, outline the company’s upcoming plans with Outlook Business, which include opening new offices and bolstering its data centre infrastructure in India. This comes amidst the rollout of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, which has resulted in companies prioritising data security to stay on the right side of the data compliance rules.
Edited excerpts:
What is Futurex’s core business areas?
For over 40 years, Futurex has provided enterprise-class data security solutions to over 15,000 organisations worldwide. These companies have used our hardware security modules, key management servers, and cloud hardware security module (HSM) solutions to address mission-critical data encryption and key management needs.
Futurex started out supplying cryptographic solutions to the payment industry and, in the decades since, has broadened its reach to every market vertical, and geographic region worldwide. We provide HSMs, key management solutions, and cloud cryptography services to organisations of all sizes and industries, including tech-first startups.
Our company’s abiding philosophy is innovation: we create the ideal solutions we would want to use. Futurex was the first organisation to pioneer the all-in-one key management server and key injection HSMs. Likewise, our HSM virtualisation solution was the first one on the market through our Vectera product line—an innovation that other cryptography providers soon imitated.
We were also the first to provide a global cloud HSM platform. We accomplished this by establishing data centres in every geographic region, providing customers with high availability and low latency no matter their location.
Please share details about Futurex's current operations in India.
Headquartered outside of San Antonio, Texas, with a global footprint spanning over a dozen data centres across four continents, Futurex has made significant strides in establishing its presence in India. This showcases a robust commitment to serving the burgeoning market for data security solutions.
Presently, the company operates offices in locations like Noida and Mumbai, strategically positioning itself to cater to clients' diverse needs nationwide. These offices are vital hubs for sales, customer support, and business development activities, facilitating seamless engagement with clients and partners.
In addition to its offices, Futurex has invested in data centres in India, with facilities located in Hyderabad and Mumbai. These have advanced infrastructure and robust security measures, ensuring low latency, high availability, and compliance with data localisation requirements.
What role do these data centres play in the company’s organisational structure?
Leveraging these data centres, Futurex delivers secure and reliable data encryption and key management services to organisations spanning various industries, addressing critical security concerns in today's digital landscape. We have assembled a dedicated team in India, comprising professionals with diverse expertise in sales, technical support, engineering, and other key domains.
How do you plan to augment your Indian operations?
Looking ahead to the fiscal year 2025, Futurex has ambitious plans to scale its operations in India further. These plans include expanding its footprint by opening new offices in strategic locations and enhancing its reach and accessibility to clients nationwide.
Additionally, Futurex aims to bolster its data center infrastructure in India, investing in improving existing ones to accommodate the growing demand for secure data storage and encryption services.
Furthermore, the company plans to augment its workforce in India, hiring additional talent across various functions to support its growth objectives. By investing in talent acquisition and development, Futurex seeks to build a robust, dynamic team capable of driving innovation and delivering exceptional customer value.
We also intend to strengthen its partnerships with local IT distributors, consultants, and service providers in line with its growth strategy. These strategic partnerships will enable Futurex to deepen its market penetration and identify new business opportunities, solidifying its position as a leading provider of data security solutions in the Indian market.
How is Futurex helping BFSI and start-up companies secure sensitive data?
Organisations in the payment sector globally use Futurex's HSMs, key management servers, and cloud HSM solutions to protect sensitive data. These solutions provide physically secure environments to run encryption algorithms, create and store encryption keys, and perform cryptographic processes. In short, organisations that need compliant, secure, and user-friendly data security find everything they need in our solution suite.
What specific challenges does the BFSI sector face regarding data security, and how does Futurex address these challenges?
We often help organisations in the BFSI sector replace their legacy or end-of-life HSM infrastructure to deploy new cryptographic use cases and expand their operations. Other frequent challenges are maintaining compliance with local and international regulations and streamlining management overhead.
Regarding cryptographic management, data silos pose a formidable challenge at the enterprise level. We've honed our platform to eliminate data silos via centralised infrastructure management; that way, cryptographic resources are shared between business units from a central pool.
How can fintechs, especially, leverage your solutions to adhere to the DPDP Act and also ensure data security?
As a global payment processing and fintech hub, the Indian BFSI sector has a high demand for strong cryptography. We've seen increased demand for cloud cryptographic solutions among many organisations, from large enterprises needing to quickly deploy new use cases to fintech wishing to accelerate their time to market. Our data centres in Mumbai and Hyderabad enable our Indian customers to comply with data localisation requirements while enjoying the benefits of our cloud HSM platform.
India has high standards when it comes to compliance. Fortunately, we design our solutions with such high security and compliance that what works in North America or the EU also works in India. For example, India's BSFI sector abides by PCI compliance requirements, which are a standard all over the world.
How does Futurex inspire confidence in startups looking to embrace digitalisation without compromising sensitive data security?
When it comes to data security, there’s no better symbol of trust than a certification with a high standard of compliance. To pass that trust onto our customers, we ensure our solutions are validated under PCI HSM, PCI PIN, FIPS 140-2 Level 3, and many other widely recognised security standards.
As a result, our customers enjoy the peace of mind that comes from using a trusted vendor that prioritises compliance. Moreover, Futurex solutions can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, and in hybrid configurations to meet the needs of any organisation.
How do Futurex's HSMs contribute to securing sensitive data at rest or in transit?
A HSM is a physically and logically secure device that performs cryptographic functions. Futurex HSMs use logical security features like dual-login controls and permissions management. They ensure physical security with tamper-resistant enamel casings, which protect the encryption components on the HSM’s circuit board.
These physical security features also allow organisations to store encryption keys in a way that neutralises the concern of exposure or breach. Furthermore, Futurex HSMs integrate with many business applications to perform encryption and manage their encryption keys. In other words, our HSMs use strong cryptography to meet data security needs of any type and scale.
