Empowering customers to realize the benefits of managing identity in the cloud

WALL, N.J., June 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, announced today that it has joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN), a global community of partners who leverage AWS to build solutions and services for customers. Together the companies are helping customers move their IAM strategies to the cloud for greater availability, scalability, resiliency, and reduced overhead.

With the continued growth of cloud-based services and remote access becoming the norm, organizations need to rethink how they manage digital identities. The reasons for managing identity services on-premises are becoming less relevant as many organizations drive toward Zero Trust or perimeter-less security principles. Further, the IT resources and skills required to manage on-premises solutions are limited, with many organizations looking to outsource all access management to managed services providers (MSPs) whenever possible.

As part of the APN, BIO-key now has access to the AWS ISV Accelerate Program, a co-sell program for companies that provide software solutions that run on or integrate with AWS. The program is designed to help ISV Partners like BIO-key drive new business and accelerate sales cycles with the AWS Sales organization by connecting participating independent software vendors (ISVs) with the AWS Sales organization. The AWS ISV Accelerate Program will provide BIO-key co-sell support and benefits to connect with AWS field sellers globally, who service millions of active AWS customers. Co-selling provides better customer outcomes and assures mutual commitment from AWS and AWS partners like BIO-key.

Built on AWS, using BIO-key PortalGuard Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) provides an added layer of access management to the already secure, extensive and reliable cloud. Customers and MSPs will be empowered to manage security policies centrally while removing the complexity of storing digital identities on-premises.

�Cloud applications became ubiquitous, and scalability continues to be a critical requirement as our college matures and the number of identities we need to manage grows,� said Andy Specht, Director of Information Technology Services at Allan Hancock College, one of the 50+ Foundation of California Community Colleges (FCCC) BIO-key customer institutions. �The migration from PortalGuard on-premises to PortalGuard IDaaS on AWS gave us significant opportunities to achieve efficiencies in manual operations, infrastructure, and maintenance costs, while freeing up our IT resources to focus on more valuable strategic work.�

Orange Bank & Trust Company, another BIO-key customer, selected PortalGuard IDaaS to support the bank�s digital transformation and cloud adoption. �We�ve been focused on moving our critical systems to the cloud,� said Kathy Pinto, First Vice President at Orange Bank & Trust Company. �Using PortalGuard on AWS not only helped us simplify our IT infrastructure, reduce costs, and improve operational efficiency but it also gives us the flexibility to be able to scale and easily secure access to new apps, services, and solutions as our digital banking strategy evolves.�

�Public sector organizations need secure, scalable and reliable identity verification,� said Jeff Kratz, General Manager, Worldwide Public Sector Partners, AWS. �As part of the Amazon Partner Network, BIO-key will help customers move identity management to the cloud with greater predictability, simplicity and affordability.�

�We are pleased to expand our ongoing relationship with AWS through the AWS Partner Network,� said Mark Cochran, President of PortalGuard, BIO-key. �As IAM remains the doorway to a significant number of applications, any outages can create a significant impact from a business perspective. Becoming an AWS ISV Partner furthers our commitment to providing flexible, easy-to-manage solutions that help our customers and partners realize the �utilitylike� availability, scalability, resiliency, and cost reduction benefits of managing identity in the AWS Cloud.�

As an award-winning IAM platform, PortalGuard IDaaS offers a wide variety of choices for multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), self-service password reset (SSPR), and Identity-Bound Biometric authentication options that provide the highest level of integrity and is well-suited for everyday use cases including remote workforces, third-party access, Customer IAM (CIAM), and passwordless workflows. For over 20 years, PortalGuard has been trusted by customers across multiple industries, including education, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and government, to reduce password-related help desk calls by up to 95%, eliminate passwords, secure remote access, prevent phishing attacks, meet cyber insurance requirements, and improve productivity for the IT team.

To learn more about BIO-key, AWS, and managing identity in the cloud, please visit the BIO-key website.

About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution, that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.

BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors'' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.

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Media Contact
Erin Knapp
Matter on behalf of BIO-key
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Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
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