PowerTech to Resell Pat Townsend’s Encryption Offering

September 22, 2009 Alex Woodie

Two i OS security vendors that have seen leadership changes in the last couple of months, Patrick Townsend Security Solutions (PTSS) and PowerTech, recently announced a partnership that will see PowerTech reselling PTSS’s Alliance line of AES encryption software for the i OS server.

The security industry has seen a big boost lately in the form of the Payment Cardholder Industry Data Security Standard (PCI). One of the requirements of the PCI DSS is to implement strong encryption for credit card data, which is what many retailers are still scrambling to do to avoid paying big fines to the big credit card companies.

The AES encryption solutions from PTSS have long been considered top-notch, and now they have the stamp of approval from a fellow i OS security shop, PowerTech.

“This is a natural relationship for PowerTech customers who need encryption,” says Tom Huntington, vice president of technical services at Help/Systems, which bought PowerTech about a year ago with the help of its private equity firm.

For System i security expert John Earl, it’s a deal that involves his former company and his current employer. Earl was CTO at PowerTech until earlier this year, when he left the company, eventually winding up as CEO for Pat Townsend, which is based in Olympia, Washington.

PowerTech had been based near Seattle, Washington, but the company’s headquarters are now listed along with Help/Systems’ in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.