CipherCloud unveiled CipherCloud for Office 365, a cloud encryption gateway that transparently encrypts all email message, calendar, and contact data stored in Microsoft’s cloud-based Exchange Online and third-party Hosted Exchange.

CipherCloud encrypts data-at-rest, data-in-transit, and data-in-use in real-time, organizations retain control over their encryption keys, and all Office 365 functionality is preserved, including search capabilities.

Users enjoy a completely seamless experience across desktops and mobile devices including Android, BlackBerry, iOS, and Windows Phone devices. CipherCloud for Office 365 is the latest addition to the CipherCloud Platform, which secures multiple cloud applications including Salesforce, Force.com, Chatter, Gmail, and Amazon AWS.

Compared to on-premise Exchange deployment, Office 365 can save enterprises over $200 per user each year. However, data privacy, residency, security, and regulatory compliance concerns are significant barriers to adopting cloud services.

Failure to comply with regulations such as GLBA, PCI DSS, ITAR, HIPAA, HITECH, EU Data Protection, PIPEDA, and FISMA can cost organizations millions of dollars in fines and destroy organizations’ brands. For example, the State of Alaska was fined over $1.7M for a single data security breach under HITECH healthcare regulation.

Cloud service providers may also move data outside of a country or region’s legal jurisdiction and be required to disclose organizations’ data without notice under laws such as the US Patriot Act. Encryption is recognized by industry and regulators as an effective means to stop data breaches and satisfy compliance requirements.

According to Lawrence Pingree, research director, Gartner, “Data security and privacy concerns are holding back many companies from moving to cloud-based email solutions. For these companies, deploying encryption gateways can alleviate those concerns and eliminate a key roadblock to widespread cloud adoption.”

“Many of our enterprise customers are unable to move from on-premise email to Office 365 because of data privacy, residency, security and regulatory compliance concerns. By giving enterprises complete control over encryption and key management, CipherCloud provides our customers the confidence they need to move to the cloud,” said Ali Hosseini, CEO of NSI technology, a Microsoft Gold Certified partner.