Brocade, NetApp team to extend and simplify data encryption
ConvergenceAsia staff
25/06/2008

Data centre networking solutions company Brocade and NetApp have announced a collaborative development effort that will enable data centre customers to more quickly and easily encrypt corporate data for increased security and compliance. The collaboration will also provide customers with simplified policy management and allow them to protect all data in the data centre.

Under terms of the agreement, Brocade and NetApp, a storage and data management solutions provider, will integrate the secure, scalable, and centrally managed Lifetime Key Management solution from NetApp with Brocade’s fabric-based encryption technology. Brocade will resell the NetApp Lifetime Key Management appliance as part of its fabric-based encryption switches and blades portfolio.

The combined technologies will provide an easy-to-use, high-performance solution for increased protection of critical corporate information. Additionally, the collaboration presents a new approach to encryption of data at rest, making it feasible to protect all data in the data centre.

“With so many approaches to encryption receiving attention today, the complexity of encryption itself can pose a risk. Fabric-based encryption is one approach that can help reduce the complexity of storage encryption,” said Scott Crawford, research director, Enterprise Management Associates. “Today, administrators may manage different encryption for tape, appliances, applications, disk, and more. Fabric-based encryption allows for a single, common method of encrypting all types of data. By centralising encryption, fabric-based approaches can also centralise key management and reduce its complexity."

The new approach will be significantly faster than today’s solutions, as it will be based on Brocade’s 8Gbit/sec Data Centre Fabric (DCF) architecture. For applications requiring data encryption, the Brocade fabric-based solution will enable applications to perform at full wire speed, and protect significantly more data in less time without compromising application or user performance.

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