Marvell Technology recently announced that Microsoft has chosen the Marvell LiquidSecurity family of hardware security modules (HSMs) for Microsoft Azure Cloud HSM.
Marvell LiquidSecurity HSMs currently power Microsoft Azure Key Vault and Azure Key Vault Managed HSM services. With this expanded collaboration, Marvell will now support Azure Cloud HSM.
Azure Cloud HSM is a highly available, single-tenant service that enables customers to manage cryptographic keys and perform cryptographic operations within their own dedicated, Cloud-based HSM cluster. FIPS 140-3 Level 3 certified, Azure Cloud HSM gives customers secure, direct, end-to-end encrypted access over a private, dedicated link from their virtual network.
HSM-as-a-service market revenue is expected to grow at 8.5% per year through 2029.
“We are excited to extend our collaboration with Microsoft on the Microsoft Azure Cloud HSM service with Marvell LiquidSecurity HSMs,” said Will Chu, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Custom Cloud Solutions, Marvell. “Together, we share a vision to modernise the HSM market and enable Azure customers to leverage the latest security standards for the most demanding, cloud-scale applications.”
“Many customers require administrative control of their HSMs, but don’t want the overhead and ancillary costs that come with managing high availability HSM clusters on their own,” added Soumya Subramanian, Vice pPresident of Cloud Security Engineering, Microsoft. “Through our longstanding collaboration, we are able to offer Microsoft Azure customers the most secure and compliant key management services available in public, sovereign or government Clouds today.”
“Cloud continues to drive the pace in HSM spending as service providers work to ensure that the underlying infrastructure can support the growing demands of confidential computing and Cloud sovereignty,” said Michela Menting, Senior Research Director, ABI Research. “Marvell, which pioneered the category of Cloud-optimised HSMs and remains the leader in the category, is poised to play a significant role in this evolution.”
A crucial element of global commerce, HSMs perform the authentication and encryption processes behind securing data at rest and in motion, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), sign-in services and other transactions. HSMs have historically been packaged as 1U and 2U server appliances running standard microprocessors and managed by HSM users within their own data centres.
Marvell LiquidSecurity HSMs, by contrast, are PCIe-based devices tailored for dense multi-tenant Cloud environments.
Powered by optimised OCTEON DPUs, a single LiquidSecurity2 card can manage 100,000 pairs of encryption keys and process more than one million operations per second. As a result, Cloud service providers can deliver HSM services while consuming a fraction of the power, rack space and hardware required by traditional HSMs. Meanwhile, HSM users can switch from the complexity of managing hardware to the ease of subscribing to HSM services. The Cloud-based model for HSMs also reduces barriers to employing HSM and encryption services for secure medical records and other transactions.
