[September 21, 2011]

New Industry Forecast Projects Dramatic Shift to Self-Encrypting Hard Disk and Solid State Drives by 2017 with More Than 80 Percent of HDDs to Be SEDs in Next Two Years

Data storage industry analyst Dr. Thomas Coughlin, Coughlin Associates, today revealed the industry's first forecast examining the adoption of self-encrypting drives (SEDs). Self-encrypting drives, most of which are based on specifications created by the Trusted Computing Group, automatically and continuously encrypt all data in the drive itself, protecting it from loss, theft or attack.

Coughlin addressed attendees in an Emerging Technologies session at the NSA (National Security Agency (News - Alert)) Trusted Computing Conference and Expo.

Coughlin's research found that:

• Within 2 years (by 2013) SED capability will be in over 80 percent of SSDs and likely in almost all SSDs within 3 years (2014).
• By 2017, almost all HDDs will include SED capability.
• By 2016 the high, median and low estimates for security adoption for SED HDDs are 411 million, 315 million and 122 million units.

Coughlin notes that a number of factors will foster adoption. These include cost parity of SEDs to non-self encrypting storage devices; no performance impact on individual systems with SEDs compared to software-based encryption; no performance overhead compared to software encryption running on the host; and possibly longer useful drive life than drives used in a software encrypted system, due to increased reads and writes with SW encryption.

The report also notes additional benefits of SEDs.These include:

• The encryption key is stored on the storage device and cannot be accessed through host hacking, which is a typical and common attack on systems with software encryption.
• SEDs are less complex to implement in storage array encryption solutions.
• Increasing legislation and regulations favor the use of SEDs, particularly those with FIPS 140 certification.

Webcast to Review Results and Offer Discussion with Dr. Coughlin

Dr. Coughlin and Trusted Computing Group will host a free webcast, "Why SEDs Soon Will Be the De Facto Drive: Industry Forecast and Predictions from Dr. Thomas Coughlin" on October 5 at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern, to review the report's findings in more detail. A question and answer session will follow the webinar. To get more information and to register, go to http://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/media_room/events/110.

Dr. Coughlin has more than 30 years in the data storage industry with multiple engineering and management positions at high-profile companies, and he holds six patents. Dr. Coughlin authored Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics: The Essential Guide and publishes the Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics Report, a Media and Entertainment Storage Report, and a Capital Equipment and Technology Report for the Hard Disk Drive Industry. He is active with SMPTE, SNIA, IDEMA, the IEEE (News - Alert) Magnetics Society, IEEE CE Society, and other professional organizations. Dr. Coughlin is the founder and organizer of the Annual Storage Visions Conference (www.storagevisions.com), a partner to the International Consumer Electronics Show, as well as the Creative Storage Conference (www.creativestorage.org).

Trusted Computing Group (News - Alert)

The Trusted Computing Group (TCG) provides open standards that enable a safer computing environment across platforms and geographies. Benefits of Trusted Computing include protection of business-critical data and systems, secure authentication and strong protection of user identities, and the establishment of strong machine identity and network integrity. Organizations using built-in, widely available trusted hardware and applications reduce their total cost of ownership. TCG technologies also provide regulatory compliance that is based upon trustworthy hardware. More information and the organization's specifications and work groups are available at the Trusted Computing Group's website, www.trustedcomputinggroup.org. Follow TCG on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

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