The Key to Controlling Data

The reality is this: digital data cannot be controlled. Anything that's created can and will touch countless media surfaces during its life on a LAN or SAN - servers, magnetic disk, optical disk, tape, even memory sticks. It can be sent around the world with a click, landing in places its creator never envisioned.

Thus the old method of controlling data by deleting it is an obsolete concept. In the digital age, data itself cannot be controlled, but access to data can be controlled with encryption keys, which allow the key holder to limit access to the data regardless of where it resides.

Sun's Storage team has been involved in commercial and government-funded projects involving data protection for many years. These projects have yielded significant technology for encrypting data-in-transit and data-at-rest. They have also given rise to important strategies for using encryption key management - not only to secure data but also to manage it more effectively.

This paper outlines Sun's encryption strategy, discusses the pros and cons of three common encryption methods used today, and discusses the challenge of key management in an encrypted world.