Bob Wilson, VP, Nearline Storage, HP StorageWorks, seems very proud to handle this new activity even if he adds: "The Atalla group developed the product and owns the security strategy".

The new Secure Key Manager is an Ethernet 1U appliance, based on an HP Proliant server and a Linux-based software, that centrally manages the keys to access to the encrypted data stored initially on HP’s LTO-4 tape cartridge drive libraries. It can be clustered with a base configuration of two nodes (one node controlling keys for up to 5 libraries) which can scale to 89 ones, and has failover capabilities (dual fans, two power supplies, mirroring disk drives).

It’s possible to create a key per library partition or even per cartridges for each user. The new security box can currently manages 10,000 keys to be extended to over one million in the future.

The data encryption itself is realized via a chip integrated on all LTO-4 drives that also contain a compression ASIC.

The tape encryption is not really a new technology and has been adopted mainly to avoid the risk of tapes being lost or stolen when they are transported off-site. According to data compiled by Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, there have been almost 167 million records containing sensitive personal information that have been compromised to date.

The Secure Key Manager is reserved to high-end users, as it costs 59,900 Euros (and 32,900 Euros for an expansion module), a fairly high price for a device that can just manage the keys of HP-only tape automation products, even not virtual tape libraries (VTL). But, according to Adam Thew, Director of Marketing, Data Protection and security products into the same StorageWorks Division, HP will increase the interoperability of the management of keys coming from data encrypted by FC switches. Furthermore, he previews that the Data Protector backup software will be integrated onto the Secure Key Manager.
In this field, HP competes with companies including EMC/RSA, Ingrian, NeoScale, NetApp/Decru, and Vormetric.

Quantum, a storage competitor as well as a company that OEMs some tape libraries to HP, already offers now a similar product, the Encryption Key Manager, also for its own Scalar tape libraries and also based on the 256-bit AES.

For the users, the main current problem is the lack on interoperability among the different offerings.

Confirming its entrance into the storage security market, HP also decided to put on the market notebooks with integrated encrypted hard disk drives coming from Seagate Technology.