Encryption For Long-Distance SANsEncryption For Long-Distance SANs

Companies working to secure their IT infrastructure now have a tool to protect storage area networks and improve back-end security. NeoScale Systems Inc. will unveil its CryptoStor SAN VPN appliance on Tuesday as an option for securing back-end communications related to storage networks.

The tool is designed to encrypt data as it moves across a long-distance storage network from one site to another. NeoScale says the appliance will also improve performance of high-end networks such as synchronous optical networks.

Because the CryptoStor appliance is based on hardware and includes compression technology, it should help reduce latency times, according to NeoScale. The vendor has also included AES-256 encryption with dynamic key exchange and an SSL Web-based user interface for console management. The appliance ships next week for $40,000 per system.

Organizations that have to pay special attention to privacy, such as financial-services and insurance firms and the government, may be particularly interested in CryptoStor, says Stephanie Balaouras, an analyst at IT market-research firm Yankee Group. "There's a gap with security on the metropolitan [SAN], because customers have to purchase some edge router, and deploy their own encryption," she says. "Service providers don't have the capability either, but they could partner with NeoScale."