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IBM has announced the End of Sale and End of Support for their Guardium Data Encryption (GDE) Solution offering.
Existing IBM GDE customers can transition to Thales CipherTrust Data Security Platform to maintain access to Thales ‘s award-winning data security platform that enhances security, ensures compliance, and provides access to a full suite of data security products.
Time to Plan your Evolution to CipherTrust!
You have invested in the IBM GDE platform to provide centralized key management and data protection throughout your enterprise and cloud environments.
As the GDE portfolio is no longer being actively supported by IBM, Thales is the singular choice to maintain your existing key management and encryption use case and offers exciting new solutions to enhance those previously available to GDE customers. Start planning your transition now to receive first line support from the original solution vendor. We're here to help!
Shifting to Thales CipherTrust is Easy
Shifting from IBM Guardium Data Encryption (GDE) to CipherTrust Manager and the CipherTrust Connector portfolio is a straightforward process. In most cases, no production environment changes will be required – just purchase CDSP licenses to replace GDE licenses. For others, it may make more sense to create a new Thales environment and gradually transition operations from GDE to the new environment.
Thales is happy to offer you a no-cost GDE Check-Up to assist you in evaluating your environment and understanding the steps to move to Thales' product and support.
The GDE Checkup provides the following:
- Review of your current or planned usage of GDE
- Highlight differences between GDE and CipherTrust offerings
- Determine your software and licensing requirements for CipherTrust
Transition to CDSP and benefit from having access to Thales's Technical Support
Customers currently relying on IBM for GDE support and software can easily transition to Thales‘s customer support as part of the transition.
Key Advantages of Thales Technical Support
Faster Response Times
Get direct, 24-hour access to Thales Support engineers without being routed through intermediaries. Working directly with Thales means faster escalation and quicker problem resolution.
Unmatched Product Expertise
No one understands Thales’s solutions better than the team that built them. Our certified support engineers have direct access to Thales’s engineering and quality assurance teams to expedite technical issues. Customers also benefit from the Thales Support Portal for efficient case management, software downloads, and update notifications.
Comprehensive Knowledge Base
Leverage in-depth product documentation, configuration tips, best practices, and troubleshooting guides curated by the CDSP team.
Global and Specialized Technical Staff
Thales provides worldwide support coverage through a global network of cybersecurity specialists. You will always have expert assistance whenever—and wherever—you need it.
Additional Benefits of Working with Thales
Deployment Options
Thales provides not only the ability to deploy Virtual CipherTrust Manager, but also offers
- Physical CipherTrust Manager appliances which include a FIPS 140-2 certified PCI HSM card for Root of Trust for additional security and compliance.
- CipherTrust Data Security Platform as a Service (CDSPaaS), a Thales hosted offering providing a 99.95% SLA for the CipherTrust platform, allowing you to focus on your key management and encryption use cases.
READY TO UPGRADE?
Contact us to start your migration
Take the Next Step
Do not settle for less than direct access to the experts who designed your data security platform.
Contact Thales today to transition your CDSP support directly to the source.
Email gde-sales@thalesgroup.com or speak with your Thales representative or partner to unlock faster service, deeper expertise, and broader cybersecurity capabilities.
See what other customers are saying
Most likely the best Key Management solution
Easy deployment and integration and flexible on scale.
Great integration compatibility
Ciphertrust Manager is a leading KMS software in the marking, it provides great integration capability, supported by major brands that support external KMS integration.
The economic impact of CipherTrust
Forrester recently completed a study of the CipherTrust Data Security Platform to quantify the total economic impact for customers. Here are just a few of the key findings.
70 %
Reduction in encryption and key management effort
$ 5 M
Reduction in tooling and storage costs
192 %
Return on investment
Ready to upgrade to CipherTrust Manager?
Frequently Asked Questions
The dates outlined by the IBM announcement are approaching quickly. Organizations are increasingly managing sensitive data across on premises systems, cloud platforms, and SaaS applications and using a dated version of CipherTrust (upon which GDE was released) may leave customers behind the technology current and poorly positioned to adopt the new PQC algorithms.
Transitioning to CipherTrust helps ensure long term support, simplifies encryption and key management, introduces our latest software releases, and provides the visibility and control needed to protect data consistently—today and in the future.
IBM has announced changes to the software ordering and lifecycle status of Guardium Data Encryption across versions and releases. While existing deployments may continue to run, these changes mean customers should evaluate their long term strategy to ensure:
- Continued support and maintenance coverage
- Ongoing compliance with security and regulatory requirements
- Alignment with future application and cloud initiatives
- Access to software updates
Many customers view this as an opportunity to move to a fully supported, current CipherTrust platform that provides centralized management across all environments.
In most cases, customers can transition to a modern data security management platform without re-encrypting existing data or causing application downtime. Upgrade and migration approaches are designed to preserve encryption investments while modernizing how keys, policies, and access are managed.
The exact process depends on your environment and security requirements, but Thales works with customers to ensure a frictionless, low risk transition that will require no changes to your production environment.
By upgrading, customers gain:
- Centralized management of encryption keys and policies across on prem, cloud, and hybrid environments
- Simpler operations with improved visibility and governance
- Stronger security and compliance support, including separation of duties and audit readiness
- Future ready architecture that supports cloud adoption and evolving cryptographic requirements
This upgrade helps organizations reduce risk, improve control, and confidently protect sensitive data as their environment continues to evolve.