Microsoft announces Azure Payment HSM general availability

Microsoft announced the general availability of Azure Payment HSM. The hardware security module (HSM), developed by Thales, is a dedicated crypto processor created to protect crypto keys throughout their lifecycle. The new offering is a Baremetal Infrastructure as a Service solution that allows customers to natively access payment HSM in Azure, according to the companies.

The offering is delivered with the Thales payShield 10K Payment HSM, which supports remote and single-tenant HSMs to create full separation between a client’s data and Microsoft. HSMs can be quickly provisioned and connected to a customer’s VNet, with Microsoft admin access limited to Operator mode.

“Azure Payment HSM customers can significantly reduce their compliance time, efforts, and cost by leveraging the shared responsibility matrix from Azure’s PCI Attestation of Compliance (AOC),” stated  May Chen Senior Product Manager, Azure Core Security Services.

Full responsibility for managing the HSM rests with the customer, Microsoft noted in its announcement, although the offering includes a support license from Thales. Customers can add on demand HSM capacity and scale up to as much as 2500 CPS to support payment apps or low latency scenarios.

Payment HSM is geared toward financial institutions, particularly in payment services. It supports scenarios like mobile payment authorization, payment processing, authentication, and sensitive data protection.

“Payment HSM support in the public cloud is one of the most significant hurdles to overcome in moving payment systems to the public cloud…Microsoft, working with Thales, stepped up to provide a payment HSM solution that could meet [our modernization aims,” added Timothy White, Chief Architect, Retail Payments and Cloud, ACI Worldwide, in a statement.