Stable supply lines: Wibu-Systems hardware remains fully available

Wibu-Systems, the German pioneer of software protection and licensing technology and maker of sophisticated security hardware, announced that it has ample inventory of its popular CodeMeter hardware products and will continue to supply its customers with normal delivery times without any disruption, despite the current chip shortage and global supply chain crisis.

The worldwide microchip and semiconductor shortage, caused by an unfortunate coincidence of systemic problems and unforeseen circumstances, and compounded by the Covid pandemic’s repercussions throughout the global supply chains, is affecting manufacturers everywhere. From the makers of IT devices to the producers of household appliances or even cars, the slow supplies and rising prices are causing delivery delays and factory shutdowns everywhere. With the foresight to keep strong inventories of its hardware components and products and with the company’s belief in long-term partnerships and supply contracts, Wibu-Systems is unaffected by the current situation and can continue to supply its loyal clients with its award-winning products.

Wibu-Systems’ commitment to keeping substantial stores of its products goes against the grain of the excessive just-in-time ethos in logistics, as does the company’s support for long-term contracts and solid working relationships with its suppliers. As other supply chains in the IT world have long felt the strain of the accelerating digital transformation increasing demand, unexpected events like production problems in the Taiwanese semiconductor industry sent shockwaves down the line. Blockchain technologies, too quickly hailed as a panacea to most of the IT world’s ills, have been shown to actually exacerbate the problem, as the resource-hungry technology is one of the acknowledged drivers ramping up demand for microprocessors and computing power. Coinciding with the Covid pandemic’s impact on global trade, this systemic fragility and the proverbial black swan events have revealed the weaknesses in the industry’s foundations.

Wibu-Systems’ early moves to ensure deliveries of critical components via its European sources have proven to be a model of antifragility in action: While the price increases caused by the current situation have to be accommodated, Wibu-Systems will be able to supply all of its customers with the IT protection and licensing products they need as they need them.

Beyond its ability to deliver its hardware secure elements, be it CmSticks, CmCards or CmASICs, reliably, Wibu-Systems also leaves its clients and users a choice of licensing container types: The physical CmDongles have long been a guarantee of exceptional security, with great portability and offline availability for use cases that do not allow regular Internet connections. CmActLicenses, the smart software license containers that bind to a digital fingerprint of the user’s system, skirt the entire issue of hardware availability and promise still high security standards with even faster availability than dongles. And the newest addition to the CodeMeter family, CmCloudContainers, take the popular protection and licensing capabilities to the cloud for unrivalled flexibility, mobility, and a level of protection on par with CmDongles.

Oliver Winzenried, Founder and CEO at Wibu-Systems, sees the situation as an expression of the company’s vision: “At Wibu-Systems, we consider ourselves business enablers for our clients. Our protection, licensing, and security technologies help safeguard and monetize their IP. And the recent events show that our business practices also help our clients, with steady supplies of the quality products that they have come to rely on.”