Building on a ten-year alliance with SSP Solutions Inc. , EDS
, the Plano, Texas-based provider of strategy, implementation and hosting services, today announced that SSP has signed an agreement with EDS to host, deploy and manage SSP’s Trust Assurance Network (TAN).
SSP’s TAN is a network of hardware devices enabling Internet security from server to user, and provides services that secure access control and movement of financial transactions and other digital content.
“EDS will be the trusted third party that will host and operate SSP’s network of servers and verifying agents that authorize, validate and authenticate SSP EMBASSY devices and applications,” says Al Decker, director of EDS Global Security and Privacy Services.
“SSP’s TAN is a unique, totally flexible and programmable platform that meets the demands of both the enterprise and the individual by supporting a multiplicity of security standards for applications,” says Richard Depew, president and chief operating officer of SSP Solutions Inc.
“Having the core of the SSP Solution Suite operated by EDS in its Secure Vault brings EDS’ capabilities to bear on a host of security applications as well as business and consumer transactions such as client authentication and access privileges and rights,” he explains.
Both firms signed an alliance in November 2000 to create, sell and deliver a set of secure transaction processing offerings based upon the SSP Solution Suite which is founded on the protection of digital rights in the digital environment.
According to Forrester Research, enterprises will increase security spending by 55 percent within two years, with U.S. security spending growing to $19.7 billion in 2004.
News of the agreement with SSP is just part of EDS’s announcement today of $150 million in U.S. contract signings.
In addition to the extended alliance with SSP, EDS signed a new agreement with Delphi Automotive Systems Corp., a manufacturer of mobile electronics and transportation components and systems.
Under this new agreement, EDS will augment Delphi’s program to deploy an ERP system based on SAP software across its North American divisions. This deployment is in support of Delphi’s objectives to improve responsiveness to market conditions and customer requests.
EDS also inked a six-year extension and renewal agreement with Philips Semiconductors to continue providing outsourcing services including server, desktop, applications and telecommunications support to its wafer fabrication facility in Albuquerque, N.M.
Terms of the agreements with SSP, Delphi Automotive Systems Corp. and Philips Semiconductors, were not disclosed.
