NetApp to buy crypto appliance specialist

Firm boosts storage and SAN security

Storage vendor Network Appliance has announced that it will acquire encryption specialist Decru in a deal that could result in better security for databases and other storage area network (SAN)-based applications.

Tim Pitcher, vice-president of NetApp, said the deal does not signal the end of Decru's standalone encryption appliance. "The Decru appliance is being run as a separate business. We will take the technology and sell it as a complement to our existing products."

Pitcher said there are no plans to integrate the Decru technology directly into NetApp's software stack, which runs on its Raid controller hardware. " Integrating it into our stack might reduce the opportunities for sales through other partners," he added.

Decru appliances encrypt data stored on SAN-based disk arrays, as well as network-attached storage (NAS), iSCSI and direct-attached storage. Encryption helps to protect data from unauthorised access.

Studies by the FBI in the US suggest that 80 percent of data attacks target information stored on such systems, as opposed to data travelling on the internet.

Claus Egge, programme director of European storage systems at research company IDC, said that Decru's technology would protect data being transferred offsite, and pointed to recent high-profile cases in the US where tapes containing backups of databases were lost or stolen in transit.

"Some industries require this type of encryption, but in terms of compliance the US is more mature than Europe and has much firmer regulation. For UK firms it's not clear that they need this level of encryption [to comply with regulations]. In Europe it's more to do with the industry that you are working in. Some are more sensitive than others," Egge added.