Dell and Austrian fragmentiX Storage Solutions in Partnership

In October 2020, the Austrian IT security company fragmentiX Storage Solutions GmbH became a worldwide OEM solutions partner of Dell Technologies.

The fragmentiX Cluster storage appliances are produced according to fragmentiX specs at Dell in Europe. Following the principle of secret sharing, they enable data to be stored on several S3 cloud storage devices – with Information Theoretical Security (ITS).

Thanks to the cooperation between the two companies, it is possible to use fragmentiX Cluster storage appliances in 170 countries for critical applications such as in medical, financial, and government sectors. All fragmentiX Cluster customers worldwide are entitled to the Dell “next business day” service option. An upgrade to a “f4-hour on-site response” is also available if required.

After several years of development, fragmentiX, located in the technology park of the Institute for Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria), has started the worldwide distribution of its Quantum Safe Storage Appliances – the fragmentiX boxes.

fragmentiX Storage Appliance front (left) and back (right)

“Already during the development of our first fragmentiX Cluster prototypes, we used Dell EMC server systems due to their reliability and performance. The partnership between Dell and fragmentiX is very positive and fruitful,” states Werner Strasser, fragmentiX CEO.

Through the cooperation, fragmentiX can offer a WW support structure to their clients, in an effort to protect their sensitive data vs. theft, espionage, and data loss, even in critical storage applications.

fragmentiX Secret Sharing: The Secret Sharing Algorithms were first published in 1979 by Adi Shamir and continuously developed until today. The product family of storage appliances is the result of a cooperation with the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) and is embedded in a secure, industrial hardware and software environment. Contrary to common encryption methods, fragmentiX Secret Sharing is able to protect sensitive data vs. future quantum computer based decryption technologies. The fragmentiX box splits any files – such as video or backup files – into a fixed number of fragments (3 to 26) and stores them in predefined – public or private – S3 buckets. Each of these fragments is stored in a different storage location, previously defined by the users and known only to them. In the smallest configurable case of 3 created fragments, 2 of these fragments – no matter which 2 – are sufficient to restore, read and use the data again. This redundancy provides additional security vs. data loss.

Furthermore, the specifically developed OS frXOS guarantees high security in a user-friendly environment: by sharing network drives, Windows, Linux, and MacOS users can store their data in the usual way, while the fragmentiX box works in the background.

Protection vs. unauthorized access, theft, data loss, espionage, and possible decryption by future quantum computers is provided by the fact, that neither a single fragment nor a too small number of fragments contains even a fraction of usable information. Individual stolen fragments are therefore of no value to hackers and data spies.

High data security in the cloud – even with high-performance requirements
The hardware platform for the fragmentiX Cluster systems is the Dell EMC PowerEdge server family’s server architecture, which is extended by a Quantum safe storage appliance using fragmentiX specific components.

These devices are optimized for operation in 19″ racks. A complete fragmentiX Cluster consists of 2 independent server nodes, one for operation and another Standby Node as backup.

At the Medical University in Graz, Austria, sensitive medical data is being protected by the first fragmentiX Cluster since 2Q20. Within the EU project OpenQKD, quantum physics (quantum key distribution) is used to protect the data transfer between the fragmentiX Cluster systems and the Dell EMC S3 storages.

Sharing data for calculation without viewing the content
In future versions of fragmentiX Cluster products, the functionality of multiparty computation (MPC) or secure multiparty computation (SMPC) will be made available as an option. This technology is suitable for companies (financial sector, freight service providers, market researchers, etc.), political parties and interest groups or research. fragmentiX is a founding member of the MPC Alliance – a WW industry association to promote the use of MPC technology.

• Datasheet fragmentiX box
• Datasheet fragmentiX Cluster