Tape drive vendors agree on encryption technology

Techworld.com - The LTO Consortium, a vendor-operated group, has announced that it is adding encryption to its LTO 4 tape drive specification.

According to the consortium's members -- Quantum (Certance), HP and IBM -- encryption is not in any current tape format specification. The announcement means that all LTO 4 tape drives, autoloaders and libraries will have native encryption capabilities.

The drives will write encrypted data to generation 4 Ultrium tape cartridges. The drives can decrypt data when reading encrypted tapes if the correct key is supplied. Key management services will also be provided, the consortium said.

The move is in response to recent losses of backup tapes and the rise of encryption devices from vendors such as Network Appliance Inc., Decru Inc. NeoScale Systems Inc. and DisUK Ltd.

Adding encryption to the LTO specification means that all LTO drive suppliers will ship encrypting LTO 4 drives and should be able to read each other's tapes. It also means that LTO tape library suppliers, such as Advanced Digital Information Corp. (ADIC), will automatically offer encryption in their libraries.

Spectra Logic Corp. has previously announced it is adding an encryption facility to its tape libraries.

Quantum also has its DLT Sage tape security initiative which puts a security code into DLT-S4 tape headers. Unless the code is known the tapes cannot be read. Quantum performs its encryption through a partnership with NetApp's Decru division.

LTO is the leading midrange and enterprise Windows/Unix/Linux tape format.

The LTO 4 format will offer 800GB raw data capacity and a transfer rate of 120MB/sec and is due for release later this year.