Why Use Data Encryption ?
Very few people realize how easily their private data can be 'mined', or accessed without their consent. The majority may not even be aware that people are accessing their important data illegally.
A few examples will prove this point. Like many organizations, you backup your data regularly and send your magnetic tapes offsite for storage in case of a disaster to your main site. You may send a copy to one of your remote office or to multiple offices. Or to a storage provider. Data may or may not be stored securely at these sites. Even if it is stored securely, a number of people will still have access to those magnetic tapes. How do you know if anyone took one of those tapes, read the data or even copied it, and put the tape back in its place? It is nearly impossible to know if someone did read, copy or printed information from one of your backup tapes. Companies may have the most sophisticated access to their computer room, advanced security and passwords for accessing specific data, etc... only to be defeated by the weakest link - data on your magnetic tapes which lies unprotected.
So access to your offsite backup tapes provides an excellent way for anyone wanting to get their hands illegally on your critical data - the only secure way to stop them is to "encrypt" the data on those tapes.
Are you immune from tempering and illegal access to your precious data? Only you can answer this question, but here are various types of applications where data encryption would ensure safeguarding of your information.
What Kind of Applications Require Data Encryption
Data Encryption solutions for storage functions include:
- Remote Copy, backup and restore
- Replication, mirroring and shadowing
- Distributed enterprise applications
- Disaster recovery and business continuity
- Storage virtualization
- Tape vaulting / management
- Managed storage services
- Shared storage facilities
- Data warehousing
Stored data protection addresses:
- Maximizing resource utilization through protected consolidation and virtualization
- Enforcing health, financial and trade regulatory compliance to stored data
- Removing risks of open access and theft related to storage data leaving the data center
- SAN data classification and administrative access controls
- Enforcing privacy compliance for arrays and tapes containing sensitive / regulated data
- Enabling alternative storage capacity and business continuity options
- Advancing application data protection beyond client / server to storage media
- Enhancing actual and perceived trust with internal /outsourced managed storage
- Eliminating unauthorized or incidental data access on failed disks and exported tapes
And, advancing current layered security provisions and business requirements without the costs associated with architecture re-engineering and infrastructure replacement.
Key users:
- Financial Services
- Government
- Manufacturing
- eCommerce
- Managed Service Providers
- Legal / Insurance
- Bio-tech / Healthcare
And any organizations that require protection of sensitive, trusted or regulated stored data.
For more information on how to protect your organizational data, please
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