Delivering Encryption as a SAN Service

Cisco MDS 9000 Family Storage Media Encryption (SME) encrypts data at rest on heterogeneous tape devices and virtual tape libraries. Cisco SME is completely integrated with Cisco MDS 9000 family switches and Cisco Fabric Manager, enabling highly available encryption services to be deployed and managed without rewiring or reconfiguring storage area networks (SANs), or installing additional software.

This innovative Cisco network-integrated solution has numerous advantages over competitive solutions available today:

• Simple, non-disruptive  installation and provisioning.  Rewiring or SAN reconfiguration not required.
• Encryption engines are integrated on Fibre Channel switching modules
• Encrypts traffic from any virtual SAN (VSAN)
• No additional software is required for provisioning, key, and user role management

Storage in any virtual storage area network (VSAN) can fully utilize Cisco SME, providing exceptional flexibility for this transparent fabric service. SME employs clustering technology to enhance reliability, availability, enable automated load balancing, failover capabilities, and to simplify provisioning. Secure key management is included, with essential features such as key archival and shredding.

The Cisco SME solution is a comprehensive network-integrated encryption service with complete key management that works transparently with existing and new SANs.