Broadcom Makes Storage Security Standard

Broadcom says it has enhanced the IT security and virus/worm protection capabilities of its XelCore RAID software stack with new features such as data redundancy, secure backup, and the ability to hide a copy of customer data from attacks against the enterprise and the network on which the data resides.

Enterprise Storage Group senior analyst Jon Oltsik calls the Broadcom offering “very unique.”

“I think Broadcom is taking a leadership position here,” Oltsik told Enterprise Storage Forum. “Storage security is a weak link in the security chain, and customers are starting to demand changes. Broadcom is addressing impending market demand here.”

The XelCore RAID software stack is based on Broadcom’s Fulcrum architecture, an integrated storage subsystem with integrated cache management that provides virtualization at any of the popular RAID levels, operating system independence, and hardware implementation flexibility for Broadcom’s RAID products.

Broadcom acquired the XelCore software stack and Fulcrum architecture in January as part of its acquisition of RAIDCore.

Broadcom says the XelCore stack is the only RAID solution that provides comprehensive data integrity and security through the implementation of N-way mirroring, array splitting, and array hiding. The technology allows customers to create several copies, or mirrors, of their data with N-way mirroring, and then protects the data by splitting off a mirror and hiding it from the operating system. The hidden copy of data, available for use only by trusted IT personnel, is kept as a protected backup that can be retrieved in the case of a disaster or attack.

“N-way mirroring and array hiding are features that businesses will be scrambling to put into practice as a means to enhance enterprise data security,” Oltsik says. “It is our opinion that data storage and data integrity need to go hand in hand, but developing that combination of capabilities without sacrificing usability and affordability has typically been difficult to engineer.”

“With the feature set incorporated within the XelCore software stack,” Oltsik continues, “Broadcom is well ahead of the technological curve and at the leading edge of this trend.”

Broadcom says XelCore provides support for all popular RAID levels, online capacity expansion, online RAID-level migration, controller spanning, and the ability to create arrays that span multiple controllers without having to bring the system down. It is deployed within Broadcom’s RAIDCore SATA RAID controllers.

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