Quantum Scalar Key Manager Appliance

Quantum Corp. announced its Scalar Key Manager Appliance, designed to reduce the complexity of encryption key management. A scalable solution which is seamlessly integrated with Quantum’s Scalar series of tape libraries, the Scalar Key Manager Appliance works with LTO-4 encryption and offers high-availability key management, providing a simple but robust security solution for midrange and enterprise customers.

With corporate governance mandates, e-discovery requirements and government regulations driving the need for confidentiality and longer data retention times, organizations must properly secure the data in their distributed tape environments to prevent loss and theft. While tape encryption is a viable data protection solution once information leaves the datacenter, some organizations have been reluctant to implement it because of the complex processes involved in earlier efforts to manage encryption keys.

Built to Comply with Federal Security Standards
Quantum’s Scalar Key Manager Appliance is designed to help end users easily meet state and federal regulations and avoid the increasingly costly and reputation-damaging data breaches associated with stolen or lost tapes that have not been encrypted. Users can set an initial encryption policy through the Scalar tape library and the Scalar Key Manager Appliance manages the rest by generating, maintaining, and synchronizing keys to keep track of encrypted tapes – all administered directly from the tape library. As a result, minimal oversight is required, and data can be safely retained for an extended period of time.

The Scalar Key Manager Appliance complies with Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 Level 1 to provide a sufficiently robust solution as data security legislation evolves. FIPS 140-2 Level 1 is a U.S. government computer security standard used to accredit cryptographic modules, which other countries are also beginning to adopt as a standard. It is designed to ensure the security of devices that have passed its rigorous certification process. With the Scalar Key Manager Appliance, the encryption keys used to protect valuable data are themselves protected, and that protection is FIPS 140-2 certified.

"We’re seeing a dramatic increase in the need for tape encryption and key management solutions, driven by new laws requiring full disclosure of data breaches and harsher penalties for businesses that lose data that’s not encrypted," said Greg Schulz, Founder and Senior Analyst, the StorageIO Group. "Organizations of all sizes are looking to implement encryption policies, some by legislative or regulatory mandate, and others due to corporate or industry governance. Quantum is bringing to market a solution that today can manage the entire process with minimal manual intervention, making daunting tasks associated with tape encryption a thing of the past."

A Scalable Tape Encryption and Key Management Approach
The Scalar Key Manager Appliance can manage encryption across multiple Quantum tape libraries, including those at different sites, thereby alleviating the time-consuming task of overseeing encryption processes on each individual tape system and providing a way for users to effectively secure data that is not in their immediate control. It can scale to serve any organization’s needs, reducing the costs associated with purchasing a new key management solution for individual tape systems. Users can set up as many security policies as needed to protect multiple data sets while the Scalar Key Manager Appliance manages the entire tape encryption key process, eliminating the need for constant monitoring. Furthermore, the Appliance can import and export keys, easily facilitating key sharing with third parties when necessary.

"Organizations have been challenged to implement data encryption processes across their distributed tape environments because the first efforts were perceived to be time-consuming and cumbersome," said Janae Lee, senior vice president of Marketing for Quantum. "The Scalar Key Manager Appliance™ simplifies data security. By integrating the key manager intelligently with the Scalar tape libraries, we’ve reduced ongoing administrative involvement, which saves organizations significant time and money."

The Scalar Key Manager Appliance is available today through Quantum and its channel partners.