Among them is NeoScale, which offers its CryptoStor line of appliance products for Fibre Channel, tape, SAN/VPN and key management environments. CryptoStor devices are designed to be deployed on a storage network as a drop-in application between the server and storage device to secure data at rest. CryptoStor's key management capabilities allow data to be recovered when and where it is needed such as at a disaster recovery site or the location of a business partner.

According to Dore Rosenblum, NeoScale's vice president of marketing, traditional server-based encryption methodologies incurred significant overhead, slowed down the backup and generally detracted from operational environments. Rosenblum claims that by dropping an appliance into the network, overhead issues are eliminated because the appliance is able to support encryption at line rates. In addition, he says because CryptoStor provides a turnkey application, it also eliminates traditional key management headaches.

"If you look at a server-based solution," Rosenblum says, "the keys are just stored there on the server and open for anyone who knows how to access them."

RSA Security Inc.

Recently acquired by EMC Corp., RSA builds its best practice environment for internal access around several key products, including RSA Authentication Manager, RSA SecurID, RSA Access Manager and RSA BSAFE.