GuardianEdge With Enterprise Solution to Manage Self-Encrypting Drives

GuardianEdge Technologies, Inc announced its newest offering, GuardianEdge Encrypted Drive Manager.

As a greater number of drive manufacturers introduce drives meeting the OPAL standards set forth by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), self-encrypting drives will play an increasingly important role in enterprise data protection strategies. GuardianEdge worked closely with multiple drive manufacturers, including Hitachi and Toshiba, to bring the new GuardianEdge Encrypted Drive Manager offering to market. The solution was designed to provide enterprise-class management capabilities for self-encrypting drives – a critical requirement for successful deployment of hardware-based endpoint data protection. It further anticipates the hybrid needs of a typical enterprise that may need to deploy both software – and hardware-based encryption solutions simultaneously.

"TCG’s OPAL standard has paved the way for hardware-based encryption," said Eric Ouellet, research vice president at Gartner. "Organizations see the promise of self-encrypting drives, but it is uncommon for an enterprise to roll out new drives to their entire workforce simultaneously. They usually bring in new drives as part of a PC refresh cycle. This staged rollout, combined with the need to protect all PC assets with encryption, means that a greater number of organizations will be managing both hardware and software encryption scenarios in the years to come."

Self-encrypting drives offer the benefit of ‘built-in security,’ including always-on encryption, operation of the drive at its full data rate without consuming main CPU cycles, and virtually instantaneous cryptographic erasure for drive disposal or re-purposing. However, without a strong management infrastructure, large-scale deployments of self-encrypting drives will not succeed. Current solutions do not cater to the needs of large enterprises that require a standards-based solution with enterprise-class scale and availability. This includes native integration with Microsoft Active Directory and comprehensive policy management and reporting for Active Directory, Novell and non-domain endpoints. Enterprises also seek a common installer with software-based full-disk encryption for incremental deployment, low cost of ownership with advanced user features such as self-registration and self-service access recovery, and full integration with additional data protection applications.

"Hitachi is a leader in data protection and has been providing encryption as an optional feature on its Travelstar mobile hard drives for five generations," said Lenny Sharp, Director of Product Marketing, Desktop and Mobile, Hitachi GST. "Our latest generation drives, the Travelstar 7K500 family, was one of the first to conform to the TCG OPAL standard, providing a reliable, high performing hardware platform to help protect sensitive information within the enterprise. By combining our advanced drives with GuardianEdge, IT managers can easily manage a large pool of laptops with centralized management for provisioning, key management and audit trails."

"Toshiba is pleased to be working closely with GuardianEdge to enable self-encrypting drive data protection solutions," said Scott Wright, Product Manager, Toshiba. "By supporting the TCG OPAL Self Encrypting Drive standards, GuardianEdge’s enterprise management software provides a comprehensive solution for organizations of all sizes to easily deploy and monitor data security on their end-user laptops and other client systems."

GuardianEdge Encrypted Drive Manager was created for the management of self-encrypting drives in a variety of organizations. The solution takes a standards-based approach to endpoint data protection, leveraging technologies such as Web Services, Active Directory and Microsoft SQL Server database software to provide a common management framework across data protection applications. This common management framework allows the solution to simultaneously manage both hardware and software-based encryption through a single console and in a single installation.

"We expect to see increased adoption of self-encrypting drive technology over the next several years," said Ram Krishnan, senior vice president of products and marketing at GuardianEdge. "Many companies will have a mix of machines for several years, where some come with built-in self-encrypting drives and some do not. These organizations are looking to the expertise of established, software-based encryption providers like GuardianEdge to handle the challenge of their hybrid environments. With GuardianEdge Encrypted Drive Manager, we are building on our established leadership position in the industry and providing the first enterprise-class solution for managing OPAL-based drives."

GuardianEdge Encrypted Drive Manager will be available in the first half of 2010.