The Two-Factor Factor

Other PC makers have followed suit, offering various applications on the client side of IT. While still not the type of technology that is being embraced throughout the market, it's now part of the information technology conversation between solution providers and their customers. Experts project big growth for the space, as well.

Consider biometric security, which is one piece of the overall two-factor authentication space. According to International Biometric Group, a New York-based consulting firm, worldwide revenue from biometrics is expected to more than double over the next five years, from $3.01 billion in 2007 to $7.41 billion in 2012, with government ID management and consumer ID solutions driving a large portion of the growth. Fingerprint recognition is expected to comprise about 38 percent of the market this year, with face recognition at 19 percent and iris recognition, or eye scanning, at 7.7 percent.

Tier-one PC makers, including Lenovo, Dell, Gateway and Hewlett-Packard, have all incorporated fingerprint readers and other biometric solutions into their product lines. American Power Conversion, which manufactures UPS systems and data center infrastructure products, also provides fingerprint reading peripherals for PC security.

Solution providers are working with customers not just on two-factor authentication for clients. Some say they are beginning to deliver it even for physical security in customer data centers. In many federal government accounts, biometric security capabilities are part of the bidding requirements.

Worldwide sales of iris recognition solutions alone are expected to reach $400 million by 2010, according to International Biometric Group. Or, if you prefer a report by Palo Alto, Calif.-based consulting group Frost & Sullivan, biometrics will reach $1.9 billion by 2013.

So, ready or not, here it comes. But while the street price on a fingerprint reader as a PC peripheral may be as low as a keyboard and mouse—$40 or so—the deployment of a biometric security solution can vary widely. (Other biometric solutions can include not only iris scanners, but also voice readers.)

Sami Siddiqi, CEO of Zezan Data Center, a Naperville, Ill.-based solution provider, says a number of his clients opt for two-factor authentication now because it's much more affordable than in the past, and regulations are now more stringent.

A typical solution that works for Siddiqi is deployed in and around a data center. On the outside, biometric security, as fingerprint recognition or smart card technology, is deployed to control access to a server room. On the inside, its role is to lock down a hard drive. Siddiqi said he invested $150,000 to secure his own data center this way, and he and his staff generally develop their own software solution during integration.

"A user-friendly platform is very important to me," Siddiqi said. "Our clients should be able to look at it remotely, very easily. It should not be available to hackers when they are online. I like to make all of our services as simple as possible."

Some solution providers opt for smart cards rather than biometrics when deploying two-factor authentication. The type of solution depends on the customer's budget and security needs.

"The whole issue of cost is really relative," said Fernando Lara, CEO of Singular Security, a Tustin, Calif.-based solution provider. "It really depends on who you talk to. When you're talking about things like cost, people have a tendency to look at cost of ownership."

The technology itself is not the complicated, out-of-reach solution it once was, Lara said. "From what I understand it to be, it's fairly straightforward. We could apply [fingerprint readers or smart card readers] just as we do a regular appliance."