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Encryption


      

Lost tapes make unwanted headlines and headaches for companies around the world. If those companies had encrypted their tapes, then their data would have been absolutely secure—without keys, data cannot be accessed. Encryption is the solution—and you can implement it without breaking your budget or your network with the affordable and straightforward Spectra Logic BlueScale Encryption.

 

Effortless and Integrated

BlueScale Encryption is the only truly integrated encryption for data stored on tape and other removable media. Spectra Logic's BlueScale environment now supports hardware-based encryption through our Quad Interface Processor (QIP) or LTO4.

  • It lets you seamlessly and affordably add encryption to your backup strategy – with no changes to backup policies and no additional hardware or software.
  • In a single step, you can encrypt and back up data. Because encryption is hardware-based, it minimally affects backup windows, and it doesn’t burden the network.
  • Managing encryption and the keys used to encrypt data is all straightforwardly handled through the library’s graphic interface—on the web and on the front panel.

Product Highlights

  • It uses the federally approved AES-256 encryption algorithm – the most secure method of encrypting data, and considered unbreakable by the US Government.
  • There is a single point of management for both encryption and data backup, along with the flexibility to manage it all from anywhere with a Web-based Remote Library Controller (RLC), secure through the use of SSL.
  • It is vendor-agnostic, platform-independent, and compliant with every major backup software application.
  • QIP-based BlueScale Encryption Key Management works with all major media types, including LTO, SAIT, WORM-enabled LTO and SAIT, and RXT media.
  • BlueScale Encryption Standard Edition, free on Spectra T50e, Spectra T120, T-Series Mid-Range (T200/T380/T680), and Spectra T950 provides a strong, easy to use method of encrypting data using a single key on the library, letting you add encryption without adding complexity.
  • BlueScale Encryption Professional Edition supports multiple keys on a library at a single time, additional security features, and compression, so you can implement more customized data encryption regimens.

Edition Comparison

All data encrypted using BlueScale Encryption is secured by the strongest available encryption method, AES-256. Within that, there are two choices in the level of security you can implement in your data center—the Standard and Professional Editions. Here is a comparison of the two.

Feature Standard Edition Professional Edition
Keys
  • Single Encryption key
  • Easier to manage and track since only one key allowed at a time
  • Multiple simultaneous encryption keys
  • More secure, with a key for each of multiple data sets
Encryption Login Passwords
  • Single encryption password
  • Easier to manage since only one encryption password to track
  • Choose either one encryption password or three
  • More secure, with multiple users required to export and import keys, etc.
Key Export and Import
  • Import and export functions require a single password, so easier to manage
  • M of N shares to export/import keys
  • More secure
Compression n/a
  • Available and can be switched on as an option
Compatibility between versions
  • Data encrypted using either version can be decrypted by a library running the other version
  • Data encrypted and compressed by a library running Professional Edition can be decrypted and decompressed by a library running Standard Edition.
Summary
  • Less secure, but less to manage
  • Fewer tapes through compression
  • More secure through use of multiple keys
  • More keys to manage and track