Townsend Gets Added to GSA Schedule

July 10, 2012 Alex Woodie

Townsend Security announced last week that its Alliance Key Manager hardware security module (HSM) has been added to the General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule, enabling the encryption module to be used by federal government agencies.

Alliance Key Manager is an encryption key management solution that Townsend unveiled in late 2008 and shipped in early 2010. The product is designed to help organizations create, distribute, archive, and manage the 128-, 192-, and 256-bit symmetric AES keys that allow them to encrypt and decrypt their data as it sits in various applications and databases, including DB2/400, DB2 for LUW, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle‘s 11i and MySQL, and others. The offering is based on Townsend’s proprietary software and is deployed on a hardened IBM System x rack server running a tough-to-crack version of Linux.

Townsend is now working with a partner, Patriot Technologies of Fredrick, Maryland, to sell Alliance Key Manager to governmental agencies. Townsend is actually going through Patriot and its GSA Schedule contract, GS-35F-4363D, to sell the HSM to government agencies.

Alliance Key Manager was already FIPS 140-2 compliant and met the federal government’s minimum standards for encryption. FIPS compliance is a requirement for any solution to be used by government agencies and key contractors, and the GSA schedule listing through Patriot makes it that much easier for agencies and contractors to obtain the product.

“When you take solutions to the federal channel, you learn the value of having an experienced partner to help you through the process,” says Townsend Security CEO Patrick Townsend. “Patriot Technologies brings years of experience in providing solutions to federal customers, and building solutions to government standards.”