Cisco, RSA Team Up to Encrypt Network Data

Cisco Systems Inc. and RSA Security Inc. last week announced plans to jointly develop security technology that will provide encryption keys for archived data first on tape drives and eventually for other types of networked storage media.

Executives said the two firms plan to integrate Cisco’s MDS 9000 Storage Media Encryption and RSA’s Key Manager technologies to provide centralized data encryption, key management and key provisioning capabilities to storage devices on Cisco networks.

The encryption technology will be added to Cisco-based storage-area networks by inserting a jointly developed line card into a Cisco server chassis. The first card, for tape drives, will ship later this year.

Rajeev Bhardwaj, director of product management at Cisco, contended that the tool will be easier to implement and use than encryption and key management appliances.

Such appliances, from vendors such as NeoScale Systems Inc., Vormetric Inc. and Network Appliance Inc.’s Decru Inc. unit, require IT personnel to rewire and reconfigure networks, he said. “From our perspective, you install the line card, and with the flip of a switch you say, ‘This backup server encrypts this tape,’” Bhardwaj said.