Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. and Thales announced the integration of Thales Encryption Manager for Storage (TEMS) with the Brocade encryption SAN switching solutions.


Thales Key Management Appliance

The combination of TEMS, the industry’s first standards-based encryption key management appliance for storage, and the Brocade encryption SAN switching solutions protect enterprise data and helps organizations meet growing compliance demands. The solution cost-effectively simplifies the storage encryption process by eliminating the need for storage professionals to deploy multiple storage encryption systems and helps ensure safe and reliable data access.

The Brocade Encryption Switch and Brocade FS8-18 Encryption Blade are part of a family of fabric-based encryption platforms that helps organizations meet their security and corporate governance objectives by encrypting critical corporate data with high performance and centralized fabric management. These leading-edge solutions offer an innovative approach to fabric-wide encryption for data-at-rest within the data center. The Brocade encryption SAN switching solutions provide encryption for both disk and tape storage systems.

The Brocade encryption SAN switching solutions are tightly integrated with TEMS, a ready-to-use appliance that consolidates and automates the management of encryption keys for storage systems in a transparent manner - delivering unified, fine-grained, and auditable encryption key security controls. This solution enables organizations to adopt storage encryption with the confidence that their encryption keys are under control and secured in a cost-effective management system.

Brocade and Thales are committed to the development and adoption of open standards. TEMS is the first key manager to support the draft IEEE P1619.3 key management specification. Subsequent releases will also support the recently announced OASIS KMIP key management standard, originally co-authored by Thales.

“Our Hitachi data resilience solution is comprised of industry-leading technologies and services designed to protect and preserve customers’ critical business information. It does this wherever the data resides, and as it grows and transforms,” said Asim Zaheer, vice president of Corporate and Product Marketing at Hitachi Data Systems. “Standards-based data encryption solutions from Brocade and Thales integrated with Hitachi Data Systems storage systems will help organizations preserve the integrity of their sensitive information. The solutions also enable compliance with corporate and regulatory policies throughout the data’s lifecycle.”

“Encrypting sensitive information has become a security requirement for organizations across all industries, especially as data breaches continue to make headlines. Establishing standards like IEEE P1619.3 and KMIP is a significant first step toward simplifying encryption key management, but it is up to leading vendors to offer solutions that support these standards,” said Jon Oltsik, principal analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. “Thales and Brocade have taken this important step by integrating TEMS with the Brocade encryption switching solutions, enabling organizations to seamlessly deploy storage encryption without concern over key management requirements such as reliability and data recoverability. This partnership demonstrates the continued momentum of KMIP and other industry standards, and should help accelerate the adoption of encryption for stored information as companies continue to bolster their security initiatives.”

Certifications
The Brocade encryption SAN switching solutions recently received FIPS 140-2 level 3 validation, a standard defined by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology and the most widely adopted security benchmark for cryptographic solutions in government and commercial enterprises. Thales Encryption Manager for Storage will undergo evaluation for FIPS 140-2 level 3 certification. These certifications help provide the assurance that the products have been developed in accordance with internationally recognized best practices and demonstrate a continued commitment to developing comprehensive, robust solutions designed to meet the highest levels of security testing.


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