EMC has added encryption products from NeoScale, Decru and CipherOptics to its Select reselling program, while FalconStor has added an encryption facility to its eponymous VirtualTape Library. IBM has promised that at some unspecified future date its mainframes will be able to encrypt data backed up to disk or tape.
Wandering backup tapes have been breaking news this year, driving demand for encryption tools. Decru and NeoScale both said their sales have increased significantly over the past few months.
Ironically, Decru was bought last month by one of EMC’s arch-rivals, Network Appliance Inc. Decru’s appearance on EMC’s reselling list will be a positive sales boost as it will be for NeoScale and CipherOptics. Decru is being kept at arm’s length and as independent as possible by NetApp, so as not to spoil Decru’s chances of selling into the customer bases of NetApp’s rivals.
NeoScale and Decru said that have been selling their products into EMC accounts for some while, and that their products have been certified by EMC for use with its Symmetrix and Clariion arrays. EMC said it is offering both companies’ products simply because it wants to give customers a choice, and cited the presence of QLogic and Emulex HBAs, or CNT and Ciena’s optical as other examples of this policy.
CipherOptics’ gear encrypts IP data traffic. FalconStor said the encryption it has added to its VTL is entirely transparent to backup applications, and is based on the AES algorithm. IBM is giving no date for the delivery of a facility that it says will for the first time allow its mainframe customers to encrypt backup data. IBM also referred to an intent that its wider storage portfolio will support external encryption and management.
There must be something about encryption that makes suppliers’ enthusiasm for labored names even worse than usual. FalconStor is calling its encryption function the Secure Tape Transport Service – STTS – while IBM said its aim to support external encryption will be enabled by something it calls an Integrated Cryptographic Service Facility, or ICSF.
