Storage Security Vendors Stay Busy

Kasten Chase may have closed its doors, but other storage security vendors are busy rolling out new products.

Decru, PGP and RSA Security all unveiled new offerings on Monday.

Decru, acquired by NetApp last year, unveiled a new key management platform, the Decru Lifetime Key Management 3.0 Appliance, and also announced partnerships with Symantec, Quantum and FileNet.

PGP unveiled PGP NetShare, which automatically encrypts content such as documents, spreadsheets, presentations, video and audio when saved to a NetShare-protected folder and keeps it encrypted when transferred to and stored on local desktops. Files on the server and desktop are transparently decrypted when opened by authorized users and automatically re-encrypted when closed. Only users with proper access rights can open a file protected by NetShare.

RSA, meanwhile, announced a comprehensive approach to enterprise data protection, wherever that data resides. The EDP framework also addresses the management of associated encryption keys, access control and authentication.

Data security vendors cite the cost of doing nothing for their optimism.

Citing a Gartner study, Decru marketing vice president Kevin Brown said a data breach typically costs a company $90 per customer — compared to $6 per customer for encryption.

Despite such compelling numbers — and the prospect of damaging publicity from a single incident — the storage security market remains relatively small. Decru, for example, is one of the fastest-growing parts of NetApp, yet accounted for only 1.5% of revenues in the company’s most recent quarter.

Decru, PGP, RSA and other vendors hope to grab their share of the nascent market by adding features to give users greater control over their data.

Decru’s announcements, for example, target file-level security (FileNet) and support for enterprise-wide key management and heterogeneous third-party software and hardware encryption devices (the LKM Appliance and Quantum and Symantec partnerships).

“By extending our key management platform into a secure appliance, and working closely to integrate with other leading vendors, Decru is providing its customers with unprecedented flexibility and functionality,” said Decru senior vice president and general manager Suresh Vasudevan.

Back To Enterprise Storage Forum