SSH Provides 'Under The Radar' Revenue Plays For Security Solution Providers

SSH keys, the means of securing identification on a server through public-key cryptography, has remained largely "under the radar for many years," according to SSH Communications Security CEO Tatu Ylonen, but he said increased awareness in compliance and security across various verticals present opportunities for security solution providers.

SSH Communications Security, which has global corporate headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, but operates in the U.S. through its Massachusetts-based offices, is "present in over 90 percent of all data centers," and SSH is used "extremely widely," according to Ylonen.

’It’s pretty much everywhere -- half of the world's web services are using SSH,’ he said.

In this age of seemingly endless data breaches, leaders in compliance and regulation in every industry from finance to health care have begun cracking down on boundary control and firewalls.

Solution providers can gain additional revenue implementing SSH on top of firewall integration, and deployment is simple.

"Just for controlling external access with SSH by vendors outsourcing partners – manufacturing vendors, IoT vendors – that can give 30 [percent] to 50 percent revenue for a firewall integrator on top of what they get from the firewall itself," Ylonen said.

"They can get that revenue from the existing customer base, giving them more value, giving more benefit to the customers," he added. "And, there’s also very interesting services opportunities around SSH key management."