Unisys is looking to boost the security of Amazon Web Services for its customers with the launch of Unisys Stealth Solution for AWS. The new offering has been designed to “enhance security” for customers that are moving data into the cloud.

What the new offering does is encrypt communication between enterprise users and the AWS public cloud. It helps to hide the virtual processing environments from unauthorized users. It’s not replacing the security features and functions included in AWS, but instead add to them.

“In survey after survey, enterprises report that data security is the greatest concern preventing them from taking advantage of the efficiencies and cost benefits of the cloud,” said Rod Sapp, vice president of products and technology at Unisys, in a prepared statement. “At Unisys, we are using the AWS cloud to supplement our development environment for solutions automating the analysis of video captured by our video surveillance solutions. Stealth is used to protect and cloak the intellectual property in these solutions as well as the video content.”

Stealth works by separating groups of users or communities of interest within the cloud, allowing only authorized users access within each community or grouping. Data is encrypted in motion across the public Internet and the AWS cloud to “create what is effectively a hidden secure private network by cloaking the endpoints.”

The authorization is actually performed within customers’ enterprise data centers, so they also retain control of the encryption keys.

This is an interesting example of a channel partner taking an active and strong role in ensuring security and encryption of customer data that’s heading to and being stored in the cloud.

“The Unisys Stealth Solution provides AWS customers the ability to add advanced network security solutions when moving their data to the AWS cloud,” said Terry Wise, head of the AWS worldwide partner ecosystem, in a prepared statement. “This solution enables customers to devote more time to business innovation instead of spending valuable resources on infrastructure management.”

Unisys is still a relatively recent addition to the AWS Partner Network, focusing on helping customers design, architect, migrate and build new applications on AWS infrastructure.

Considering how frequently the question of who is responsible for security comes up, it’s good to see partners taking a more active role in ensuring data security in the cloud. As partners are well aware, customers tend to put the onus of security on channel partners and cloud services providers, but really, they’re as critical to security as anything else. And they have to take equal responsibility. Solutions like Stealth can make it easier for customers to get the security and peace of mind they need.