Some estimates project the total annual digital storage shipped into the consumer industry to exceed 1 zetabyte (1,021 bytes) by the middle of the next decade. The 2008 Storage Visions Conference, held Jan. 5-6 in Las Vegas, explored the many facets of data storage including data protection and security. In the Storage Intelligence and Content Protection session, Robert Thibadeau of Seagate Technology and chairman of the Trusted Computing Group Storage Work Group, believes a number of manufacturers will introduce storage products with full disk encryption (FDE) within the next 18 months (two are already available) that will impress users with their capability. Other storage needs include more reliable long-term storage and handling rapidly increasing volumes of data. The conference addressed many approaches to these needs. Below is a product from each area.
SECURE STORAGE
Providing total data-at-rest security with software- or hardware-based full disk encryption, Secude's FinallySecure software delivers end-to-end security. With this system, one console allows users to manage passwords and keys without fear of losing control of the drive. “When you encrypt the drive, we have recovery information stored separately,” says Larry Massey, president of Secude. Since the drive is where the data is stored, providing security directly at that point is essential to avoiding theft, meeting legislated compliance requirements and preventing loss of critical data. The software identifies the drive is an encrypting drive and avoids the performance degradation that can occur in software implemented security.
REMOVABLE HARD DISK STORAGE
With disk cartridges that back up like a tape drive and store from 40 to 250 Gbytes, Imation's Odyssey removal hard drive system has both internal and external versions. Planned expansions will increase the storage capability to 320 and 500 Gbyte capacities. The system uses backup and recovery software that has been certified for 256-bit AES data encryption on backup media. In addition to meeting compliance requirements for protecting data, this encryption prevents unauthorized access to information. The embedded 2.5-inch SATA hard disk drives use cartridges built to withstand a shock of 900g, a one meter drop onto a concrete surface. Weighing only 6 oz (168 gm), the cartridges can also withstand up to 500V electrostatic discharge.
ARCHIVE STORAGE
While not unlike Blu-Ray or HDDVD optical storage systems, Plasmon's Ultra Dense Optical (UDO) technology provides a professional archive solution. UDO2 technology with a capacity of 60 Gbytes and maximum read performance of 12 Mbytes/sec doubles the media capacity and increases the read performance by 50 percent over its first-generation products. The write-once, read many (WORM) media only uses a single layer recording surface. The increased capacity was achieved using a higher resolution blue laser and lens assembly with 0.85 numerical aperture. With archive requirements such as HIPAA's length of the patient's life plus two years, OSHA's 30 years from the end of an audit and the SEC 17a-4's end of account plus six years, the absolute data authenticity provided by the optical technology ensures more than a 50-year media life.
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