Hifn and QLogic combine for secure SANs

Hifn and QLogic combine for secure SANs
Los Gatos, Calif. — Network security specialist Hifn has teamed with QLogic to develop iSCSI devices to power secure SAN applications. The collaboration will lead to fully compliant iSCSI storage components at both the silicon and adapter card level.

The solutions will combine QLogic's iSCSI storage processor with a multi-gigabit security processor from Hifn optimized for networked storage applications. QLogic will also use Hifn's storage security IPSec processor in its iSCSI host bus adapters (HBAs).

The devices to be developed will provide an IETF-compliant multi-gigabit solution that combines Internet-standard TCP/IP and robust IPSec security. They will use Hifn's FlowThrough security architecture, which offloads the entire IPSec protocol, both the encryption data path and the IKE public/private key exchange, greatly reducing the heavy processing load on network processors or other CPUs used in IP Storage systems.

"Now that networked storage is moving toward including support for IP transport, data is more susceptible to integrity and privacy attacks than previously," said Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic Corp in a statement. "Combining QLogic's innovative storage networking products with Hifn's proven and market-leading security systems, enables a superior solution to address these customer concerns."