Brocade flips on fabric-based encryption switch

Tag : Fabric
Brocade is beefing up its security by rolling out an encryptionFibre Channel switch and blade for data at rest.
The Brocade Encryption Switch is a 32-port, 8 Gbps Fibre Channelswitch and the Brocade FS8-18 Encryption Blade is a 16-port bladethat plugs into Brocade DCX Backbone switches. Both the switch andblade scale up to 96 Gbps of encryption processing power.
Brocade positions the encryption products as higher performing andscaling devices than those that vendors, such as Decru, NeoScaleand Kasten Chase, brought out a few years back; none of thoseproducts gained wide-scale acceptance. NetApp acquired Decru in2005 and hasn't generated as much interest in the Decru DataFortproduct as it had hoped. NCipher bought up NeoScale's assets lastyear and Kasten Chase went out of business.
Encryption for data at rest secures information stored on tape anddisk for backups. Brocade's devices do not encrypt data in flight,which is data moving across the network or the Internet.
"Encryption has been around for decades, and it's been deployedwidely in different verticals," said Jose Carreon, director of datacenter infrastructure security product marketing for Brocade."We're putting encryption in the core of the fabric."
Data encryption is supported as a plug-in service with Brocade'snew Data Center Fabric Manager (DCFM), which replaces itsEnterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager (EFCM) and Brocade FabricManager applications.
Brocade's encryption will key management products from NetApp andEMC/RSA in its first release with future support planned for keymanagement from Hewlett-Packard and nCiper. The encryption devicesalso support Symantec NetBackup, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, EMCNetworker and CommVault Simpana backup applications, and Brocadepledges support for HP Data Protector and BakBone NetVault infuture releases.
Brocade storage vendor partners, including NetApp, will resell theencryption switch and blade, Carreon said. In an email toSearchStorage.com, NetApp senior director of data protectionsolutions Chris Cummings wrote that Brocade's encryption switchwill complement Fibre Channel-series DataFort appliances. "Marryingkey management with switch-based encryption adds to the NetAppsecurity portfolio," he wrote.
Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Jon Oltsik said Brocade'sencryption products scale better and require fewer devices than theearlier encryption appliances. "Before you had to add a box to yourFibre Channel network, and you don't have to do that with thismethod," he said. "What you used to need lots of boxes to do, youcan now do with a blade and Fibre Channel director."
DataFort and similar products saw slow adoption and were eclipsedby other types of encryption, Oltsik said. "I saw a fair amount ofadoption of Decru and NeoScale with tape, but it took awhile. Atfirst, the only people buying that were in defense, intelligence,and law enforcement, and by time it gained critical mass, othertechnologies came along -- encryption tape drives, for instance,"he said.
Brocade rival Cisco last week launched encryption for data inflight between Fibre Channel switches to go with a Cisco StorageMedia Encryption (SME) module it launched for data in flightthrough a partnership with RSA last year.
Brocade's Carreon said the priority for customers now is encryptingdata at rest for backed up data, but Brocade intends to enableencryption in its HBAs to offer end-to-end encryption, andcustomers will be able to turn on encryption for data in fightthrough a software key.
"We have the first generation of encryption for data at rest in aswitch and blade now," Careon said. "In the next 12 months ourserver division will release an HBA to enable encryption that'scompatible with what we've implemented in the switch and blade.That will enable us to complete our end-to-end story from host totarget."
Yankee Group analyst Zeus Kerravala said encryption will soon be arequirement for Fibre Channel switches, regardless of how it'sdone. He said eventually encryption from Brocade and Cisco "willlook the same. If you believe one vendor's algorithm is better thananother's, it makes a difference, but the important thing is theyhave encryption. It's becoming more and more important because datais the crown jewel of a lot of companies."