Highlights
- Key management solutions off-loads security tasks and ensures Hotmail performance
"nCipher was the most qualified vendor providing the products, services and expertise that we needed."
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MSN Hotmail (www.hotmail.com) offers globally accessible, easy-to-use and feature-rich Web-based email to over 60 million users. Hotmail was acquired by Microsoft in December 1997 and is now part of the Microsoft Consumer Group.
The intensive calculations performed during the process of establishing a secure link between browser and Web site server can bog down even the most powerful Web site. This has the potential to significantly impact the online experience for visitors to the site. This is a major consideration for most companies that transact over the Web; however, for Hotmail, with more than 150,000 new users every day, this is a potential show stopper. The company needed a secure and scalable means to reduce traffic bottlenecks, especially during peak usage periods.
nForce Accelerates and Secures Customer Authentication
MSN Hotmail installed nCipher's nForce™ 300 and 75 to address bottlenecks caused by secure socket layer (SSL) calculations. The nForce key management hardware solutions off-loaded security tasks to a dedicated peripheral, relieving the server of intensive authentication computations and allowing flexible cryptographic acceleration. The hardware also provided a secure key management facility with the power to generate, store and renew identification keys. nCipher worked closely with MSN's technicians to develop and implement a solution that would meet the demands of the MSN Hotmail architecture.
"After researching potential solutions that could accommodate MSN Hotmail's rapid growth, we concluded that nCipher was the most qualified vendor providing the products, services and expertise that we needed," said Rex Smith, general manager of operations, MSN Hotmail.