PMC-Sierra, Inc. announced a new family of Tachyon storage protocol controllers featuring its StorClad encryption technology platform that significantly improves system performance, cost and manageability compared to currently available data security solutions.

According to IDC, total spending on IT security hardware and software will reach $65 billion by 2010, while only a fraction of critical data is currently being secured due to the high cost and low performance of today's software or appliance-based solutions.

PMC-Sierra's new protocol controllers with integrated data encryption, the PM8031 QE8e+ for Fibre Channel and PM8002 SPCe 8x6G for SAS/SATA, enable storage OEMs to deliver high-performance secure storage solutions without introducing costly new components or equipment into the data center (see Figures 1-3). PMC-Sierra's StorClad controllers are capable of delivering 400,000 IOPS performance per channel at a fraction of the cost of today's encryption appliances.

PMC-Sierra's controllers with StorClad technology can be deployed into existing storage system infrastructures, preserving years of IT investment by eliminating the need for new and expensive disk-drive technology or external security appliances. The StorClad architecture supports the IEEE 1619.3 Key Management standard, is compatible with Key Management Servers (KMS) and works seamlessly with key management technologies from partners, such as RSA, to manage the keys and encrypt/decrypt the data through an advanced key management interface.

"It is more critical than ever for companies to increase the security and integrity of valuable information throughout the extended enterprise. In order to help our joint customers better protect their information, we are pleased to be working with PMC-Sierra through our RSA Secured technology partner program to achieve interoperability between PMC-Sierra's Tachyon Fibre Channel and SAS controllers with StorClad encryption technology and RSA Key Manager software," said D.J. Long, senior director, Corporate Development at RSA, The Security Division of EMC. "Our organizations are committed to help mitigate risk to sensitive information throughout its lifecycle to ensure that it is always an asset - and not a liability - in order to allow organizations to accelerate their business objectives."

"PMC-Sierra worked closely with leading storage OEMs and Key Management providers to develop these innovative controller-based encryption solutions," said Mark Stibitz, vice president and general manager for PMC-Sierra's Enterprise Storage Division. "Integrating StorClad technology into our Tachyon Fibre Channel and SAS/SATA controller family enables our customers to offer advanced data security in a practical encrypted storage system solution, while maintaining their existing software and hardware infrastructure."

Security Technology Innovation with Industry Standards
PMC-Sierra's StorClad storage architecture includes Tachyon controller-based encryption, protocol controller software and an advanced key management and programming interface, supported through PMC-Sierra's Tachyon Software Development Kit (TSDK). The StorClad encryption architecture is scalable to thousands of HDDs and enables the flexibility to encrypt at the Logical Unit Number (LUN), Application or I/O level. It supports multiple servers and encryption zones, and greater than one million keys in a single controller to deliver high-performance controller-based encryption system solutions at a fraction of the cost of using specialty storage appliances or deployment of encrypted HDDs.

"Common arguments against data encryption, like performance, management complexity, and cost, influence IT purchasing decisions and leave the data center vulnerable," said Greg Schulz, founder and senior analyst of StorageIO. "By integrating encryption capabilities in their Fibre Channel and SAS/SATA protocol controllers, PMC-Sierra makes it practical to encrypt all data in the enterprise, including data at rest, in a cost and management friendly manner."

StorClad encryption and data security features include:

• Multiple IEEE 1619 compliant XTS-AES encryption engines;
• FIPS / NIST certified ECB-AES encryption mode;
• NIST recommended AES Key Wrap engines for each port;
• Data parity protection across cryptographic boundaries;
• Internal Data Encryption Key (DEK) cache;
• 256-bit encryption keys;
• Write-only encryption key registers;
• Support for 520 block sizes;
• External Key Management Interface and API;
• and I/O protocol independent APIs.

PMC-Sierra, Inc.