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What is slowing data encryption? Plenty

August 30th, 2006 · No Comments


Despite standing headlines of data security breaches on a daily basis in IT publications, there dataprotection2.jpgseems to be remarkably slow movement toward encryption. Anecdotally, our experience has been that organizations are at least as likely to be considering alternatives such as maintaining their own corporate bunker sites for tape retention or expanding replication capabilities to eliminate tape entirely as they are to be considering encryption options. Unfortunately for many organizations, this is simply not practical, and, as a result, the default behavior is to simply not encrypt.

Encryption appliances have now been available for several years, so what is holding up adoption? There are at least three reasons. The first, and arguably the biggest reason, is the unavoidable fact that if you choose to encrypt, you must also manage your encryption keys. While encryption may deter others from viewing your data, without a bullet-proof key management capability you could be "locked out" of your data, as well. For many, this is a far greater fear than the potential misuse of data from a lost backup tape, and it is the reason why appliance companies like Decru Inc. (now part of Network Appliance Inc.) and Neoscale Systems Inc. are focused so heavily on simplification of key management. Opinion: What’s slowing data encryption? Plenty

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