Olstik said latency from the encryption process' usage of CPU cycles should be minimal since all encryption administration and overhead is performed at the backup server.

"There may be some latency, a 4% performance hit is not unusual," Olstik said.

With a number of encryption products on the market, both hardware and software based the right technology for any particular user will depend heavily on their legacy and heterogeneous systems, Olstik said. "You have to upgrade Symantec NetBackup to get the new encryption features and you may not want to do this," he said.

Users may also be sharing tape drives between a Symantec backup and EMC Legato backup environment. They can consolidate encryption functions by using an appliance from Network Appliance Inc.'s Decru subsidiary or NeoScale Systems Inc., rather than trying to use two native functions.

NetBackup Media Server Encryption Option will be available in January for NetBackup v.5.1 and v.6.0 and will compliment NetBackup's existing Client Encryption Option, which encrypts backup data at the client. Symantec is charging US$5,000 per server license for NetBackup Media Server Encryption Option and $10,000 for the key management media server license.