EMC, Cisco Team for Encryption

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Extending their strategic alliance, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) and RSA, The Security Division of EMC (NYSE: EMC), today announced they are working together to develop technology that will help customers improve and simplify the encryption of confidential information – such as medical records, social security and credit card numbers. Together, these technologies will help customers encrypt data-at-rest on tapes and other types of storage media and manage the associated encryption keys within the storage area network infrastructure, a process that is less invasive, more secure and easier to manage.

The planned Cisco and RSA technology will include Cisco Storage Media Encryption (SME), which provides encryption of data-at-rest as a fabric service, and RSA® Key Manager, a centralized solution for encryption key lifecycle management. Together, they will provide mutual customers with a highly secure, scaleable technology capable of managing both encrypted media and their keys. This Storage Media Encryption technology will help enable customers to meet various regulatory and privacy requirements by helping to ensure that confidential information is not compromised if a storage tape or disk is lost or stolen. The impending technology will also support an open API (application programming interface) for key management, giving customers the flexibility to deploy stored, encrypted data solutions that best meet their operational needs.

"Security threats are no longer confined to companies with backup tapes stored at an off-site facility. Now companies of all sizes are exploring encryption because of the real threat of losing data or having it stolen," said Rajeev Bhardwaj, director of product management, Data Center Business Unit at Cisco. "By combining RSA's enterprise encryption key management with Cisco high performance Storage Media Encryption technology, we are providing our mutual customers a simpler way to protect data stored across the storage area network."

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO)

RSA Security Inc.