Data storage is playing an increasingly visible role in securing application data in the data center. Today virtually all large enterprises and institutions worldwide have implemented networked storage infrastructures to provide high performance input/output (I/O) operations, high availability access, consolidation of storage assets, and data protection and archiving. Storage area networks (SANs) are typically based on Fibre Channel technology and are normally contained within the physical confines of the data center. The security of this physical isolation, however, has proven inadequate to safeguard data from inadvertent or malicious disruption. Both established and emerging Fibre Channel and IP standards are required to secure the storage infrastructure and protect data assets from corruption or misappropriation. This paper provides an overview of storage networking technology and the security mechanisms that have been developed to provide data integrity for data center storage infrastructures.
