Wind River and McAfee — the first already an Intel subsidiary, the second soon to be — say they will jointly develop security solutions for mobile and other embedded devices. The strategic agreement will initially focus on software related to Wind River Linux, say the two companies.

The two organizations will develop, market, and support security solutions for non-PC devices, including smartphones, tablets, home gateways, and networking equipment. Other targeted markets are said to include devices for industrial control, energy management, automotive, national infrastructure, defense, networking, smart grid, and connected home health care application.

Initial integrations will combine McAfee security solutions with Wind River's commercial embedded Linux distribution Wind River Linux, followed by additional integrations with other Wind River operating systems (i.e., VxWorks) and embedded virtualization technologies (i.e., Wind River Hypervisor. In addition to the jointly developed products, Wind River will include McAfee security offerings in its future products, say the companies.

Many embedded devices have traditionally required minimal security since they were not connected to enterprise and public networks, say the partners. However, the number of connected devices is increasing exponentially, and is expected to grow to 50 billion by 2020, according to McAfee estimates.

Traditional security solutions, which McAfee  is known for in the desktop PC world, are too heavyweight for embedded devices, which tend to have limited power, memory, and performance constraints, say the partners. McAfee and Wind River will develop security and management solutions specifically design for embedded and mobile devices that will "protect all layers of the software stack," say the companies.

Intel's McAfee acquisition ready to roll

Intel signaled a desire to offer embedded security solutions when it announced its intention to acquire McAfee for $7.68 billion back in August. The acquisition has been held up by European regulators over antitrust concerns. Late last month, however, the EU cleared the deal on condition Intel allow its chips to also work with third party security software. As a result, the acquisition is expected to go through shortly.

Stated Ken Klein, president, Wind River, "Our customers across nearly all market segments have elevated embedded security to a top priority."

Stated Dave DeWalt, president and CEO, McAfee, "The teaming of McAfee and Wind River will allow us to implement security measures to protect these critical devices and keep people more safe and secure."

Availability

A phased rollout of security solutions will be delivered in 2011, say McAfee and Wind River. More information may eventually appear on Wind River's website.

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