Tag Archives: Vx 570

Terminal Retirements

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Following up on our recent blog about terminal of the future, the VX 520, today we’re going to let the other shoe drop. With the payment processing industry thrusting its spotlight onto security in the wake of the Target Data Breach, the PCI DSS and its upgraded protocols are getting a lot of attention.

Host Merchant Services has been ahead of the curve on PCI compliance, having instituted a PCI Compliance Initiative years ago. But the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council is in a continuous state of refining their security requirements and best practices so we here at HMS have to remain agile and adept at navigating these changes.

EMV smart cards, a topic we’ve discussed in depth here, are prompting PCI DSS to reorganize large swaths of its standards, and as a result, retire various terminals. As more and more POS hardware adapts to support EMV chip cards and end to end encryption, manufacturers and software developers will have to put their older equipment out to pasture. With the release of EMV/Contactless terminal applications, many of the legacy terminal devices/applications do not have the memory capacity required in order to support the association mandates. As a result, TSYS has provided a preliminary end of life schedule for credit card terminal applications that will be fully retired.

This is something the PCI DSS has been preparing for, and as such they have a schedule implemented for the retirement of older equipment. Coming up next is the VX 510 Terminal and its VDID300 Application, scheduled for retirement on June 3, 2014. Also the VX 510 and VX 570 and its VXGFT02 Application will be retired that day.

Prior to this date, Host Merchant Services has terminal upgrades available for our merchants. While we will continue to honor merchant boarding for these devices until the effective end of life date, once that occurs these devices/applications will no longer be an option available within our internal systems and downloads will no longer be available for terminal updates, swaps or technical support. So upgrading should be a priority, and Host Merchant Services will make the process seamless and trouble-free.

A Look at VeriFone’s Vx Evolution

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The Official Merchant Services Blog has been covering the basics of payment processing, offering insight and tips on the general topics of the credit card and debit card transaction industry for merchants. Today we’re going to go a little deeper, and delve into a nuts and bolts topic: payment terminals. This kicks off the first two-part series where we shine a spotlight on specific terminals that are available to merchants. After the first two-parter, we’ll occasionally revisit the topic of terminals and look at offerings from other terminal manufacturers.

Keep in mind that Host Merchant Services offers free terminals to its merchants, so reviewing what’s available and finding the terminal that fits you best can create a lot of savings on your processing bottom line in the long run. Our first spotlight shines on terminal manufacturer VeriFone, specifically the Vx series.

The Vx Evolution

VeriFone offers a series of terminals on its Vx Platform that have been slightly rebranded as the Vx Evolution. The terminals are being marketed under this evolution tag as being proven, advanced and evolved. What that boils down to is a new look with some upgrades to a line of terminals that have a history of working and working well.

VeriFone lauds the Nine Advantages of the Proven Vx Platform:

  • The Verix system that the terminals use has a decade of proven use.
  • The terminals maximize communication, speed and flexibility, support value-added transactions and deliver multi-app capability that essentially enables applications to securely co-exist on the same device.
  • A seamless transition for the next generation of the line, letting you continue to run the hundreds of existing applications that work on Verix.
  • The worldwide use and support for the popular Vx platform.
  • The lack of obstacles for platform switching, making it quick and easy to get started on a Vx platform terminal if you switch from another brand.
  • The Vx series of devices is idea for virtually any vertical market or end-use scenario.
  • The enhanced toolkit, clear guidelines and helpful documentation let users quickly build solutions based on Vx Evolution’s core technologies and capabilities.
  • The intuitive user interface helps the Vx platform get deployed quickly.
  • The ARM RealView Developer Suite (RVDS) 4.0 Complier helps you compile your applications with the Verix eVo Toolkit.

 

You can review those advantages in a downloadable PDF found here.

The Other Two Benefits of Vx

VeriFone also is lauding two other advantages for its Vx Evolution of terminals: speed and security.

The Need for Speed

According to VeriFone, the Vx Evolution delivers secure payment processing eight times faster than its competition. It claims it can do this with a superior single processor that outperforms dual processors that competitors use. Using the metric of MIPS –– Million Instructions Per Second –– this graphic shows how VeriFone’s 500 MIPS ARM 11 processor works:

Essentially what VeriFone is saying is that competitors use a 450 MIPS processor to run applications and a second 50 MIPS processor to handle critical security tasks. They claim this slows down secure transactions to 50 MIPS. But VeriFone, with its Vx Evolution brand, utilizes a built-in, integrated security processor. It’s running at 500 MIPS for everything –– applications and security.

You can fully review VeriFone’s documentation on speed by downloading a PDF about it here.

Staying up to Date on Security

The next advantage VeriFone is lauding its Vx Evolution brand with is security. This is of particular interest to The Official Merchant Services Blog because we’ve written in the past about PCI Security Standards. In fact, we took a close look at a study by Verizon that showed 79% of merchants surveyed were not fully compliant with PCI DSS standards.

Host Merchant Services offers a free PCI analysis for merchants and makes PCI Compliance a priority for its merchants. Which is why the Vx Evolution brand is noteworthy.

According to VeriFone their Full Spectrum Security package –– which is standard with all of its Vx terminals in the platform –– gets their terminals up to PCI PED 2.0 standards. So Host Merchant Services, in its push to keep all of its merchants compliant year in and year out, embraces the Vx platform of terminals that are stamped with the PCI PED 2.0 Approved seal.

At a time when many merchants are having issues maintaining the old PCI security standards, the VeriFone terminals are stepping up their game and making it easier for merchants to maintain the new PCI compliance standards. This lets Host Merchant Services merchants stay compliant moving forward and gives HMS a leg up in its initiative for quick, easy, and worry-free PCI Compliance.

You can read more about the security benefits of Vx Evolution by downloading a PDF here.

To Be Continued …

In the next part of this series, we’re going to look at the terminals themselves and see how they apply those Nine Advantages VeriFone has lauded.

In the meantime, what do you think of this branding? Have you used any Vx terminals? In the past? In the present? Let us know.