New encryption technology at Salesforce.com may ease customer concerns about data security in the cloud.
The software as a service (SaaS) giant quietly acquired Navajo Systems, an Israeli cloud security encryption vendor earlier this month, Salesforce.com told eWEEK Aug. 26. The company will announce the acquisition and provide more details on its product plans next week at its Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, according to the company's spokesperson, Rochelle Garner.
There are also reports that Salesforce will announce another acquisition at Dreamforce, of Assistly, which makes an application to add social media tools to customer communications. Assistly lets organizations interact with customers via Twitter, Facebook, email and other media via a single pane. "Salesforce.com doesn t comment on rumor or speculation," Garner told eWEEK.
Customers are increasingly wary of storing corporate data in the cloud and expect certain guarantees that the data will be safe and protected when it is accessed, according to Jeff Hudson, CEO of Venafi, a company that provides an automated way to manage encryption keys. For many organizations, concerns about whether the data would be stored securely may be a barrier to cloud adoption.
Recent studies have shown that while organizations see the benefits of using cloud applications, they remain very concerned about protecting privacy and preventing data breaches or loss.
"Salesforce understands that," Hudson told eWEEK, adding that "encrypting data has become the de facto standard" for addressing customer concerns.
Founded in 2009, Navajo Systems was one of the application vendors for Salesforce to provide encryption services for customers. The Virtual Private SaaS (VPS) technology has been available as either a cloud service or an appliance sitting on the Salesforce customer's local or wide area network. All data going from the enterprise to the cloud application has been transparently encrypted by VPS before it even leaving the network. Users have been unaware of the process, and the sensitive corporate data has been unreadable on the cloud provider's servers.
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Salesforce.com Acquires SaaS Encryption Provider Navajo Systems
Cloud Computing 
