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With the introduction of a storage security solution that uses multiple security layers to protect digital data, Atempo is doing its best to take data security to the next level.
Building on its existing Time Navigator backup and recovery storage security solution, Time Navigator SCM (Security and Compliance Manager) now offers digital signature capability, key certificate management and a full PKI (public key infrastructure) component, in addition to the standard encryption capabilities.
The result, said Steve Terlizzi, vice president of global marketing at the Palo Alto, Calif., company, is a product that provides multiple layers of security beyond encryption tied to the business value and business processes of an organizations data.
For many organizations, this may be the best way to realize the true promise of ILM (information lifecycle management), which requires that data is fully protected and uncompromised at all times.
“With ILM, you can start to store your data on the appropriate storage platform, but you end up with different data on different types of storage, which opens up new vectors to threats,” he said.
“You need to be able to encrypt the data and provide digital signatures and key access regardless of where the data is in that ILM infrastructure. Its about providing data protection, lifecycle management and data security all linked together.”
Time Navigator SCM improves on the companys existing technology, which, until this product launch, focused on turning on the encryption that comes with other vendors products, Terlizzi said.
“Now, based on the value of the data, you can set a higher encryption or a longer retention period, and you can use a key certificate to limit, for example, access only to the finance department of the organization,” he said.
For many organizations, the most important feature of Time Navigator SCM may be the ability to map the data retention period, encryption level and certificate access.
On the digital signature front, the product ensures that the data that comes from a particular source is the data that actually resides on the tape or WORM (write once-read many) device, and that the data has not changed or been tampered with.
That capability is particularly important for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, Terlizzi said.
Integrated key management, which involves managing the keys and certificate, which can be complex, also is a noteworthy feature.
This approach solves the key-related issues to the appliance approach to storage security, which manages all of the keys of the data that sits behind it, but cant manage any of the keys of the data that may be on disk, Terlizzi said.
Key management is an important function, but one that has been overlooked by many vendors, said Jon Oltsik, senior analyst for information security at Enterprise Strategy Group of Milford, Mass.
“Everyone focuses on encryption, but key management is really the heart of encryption,” he said.
“By putting more attention on key management, retention and policies, you can better protect and manage your data. It takes all of this to the next level.”
Atempos approach to storage security, in fact, is particularly forward-thinking, Oltsik said, and helps the company differentiate itself from its competitors.
“Atempo is offering its customers functionality that all vendors will have to offer in the future—things like mapping the security to the value of the data, providing digital signatures and offering key and certificate management,” he said.
“These are all requirements waiting to happen. In two years, well all just look at this as a [series of] check-off boxes.”
As for Atempo, its next move will be to offer more CDP (continuous data protection) solutions like the one it introduced last summer for desktop and laptop backup.
The company also is working on an API (application protocol interface) strategy that will enable it to partner with other companies including ECM (electronic content management) vendors, ILM companies, digital asset management companies and other archiving and search-related companies, Terlizzi said.