The San Jose-based vendor's technology road map calls for data encryption from the individual drive level all the way up to the array and library system. Quantum said it plans to unveil in the second half of next year native data-encryption capabilities through firmware embedded on silicon in the tape drive and on a special router on its tape libraries.

For starters, Quantum will announce a partnership with Decru Inc. in Redwood City, Calif., that will allow Quantum to resell Decru's DataFort encryption appliance to encrypt data being backed up on Quantum's tape and disk systems. Quantum will also offer physical locks on its tape libraries and disk drive arrays to prevent insider theft.

Moreover, the vendor plans to release DLTSage Tape Security, software that creates an electronic authentication key that gets embedded on a tape cartridge and restricts access to the data on that cartridge to authorized users. Jim Jonez, director of product marketing at Quantum, said DLTSage Tape Security is a free firmware upgrade that's available now on the new DLT-V4 drive and will be standard on the upcoming release of the DLT-S4 drive, which will be available next quarter.

In mid-2006, Quantum will add an audit-trail feature to its DLTSage software so administrators can identify who has accessed backup systems.

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