New Products Showcase Security in Sun's Storage Portfolio; New Sun StorageTek VTL Plus Leverages the Power of the Solaris 10 Operating System to Outperform Competitors -- Sun Microsystems announced two new solutions to help customers protect their information at multiple points in the data lifecycle. Sun is introducing device-level tape encryption with key management on the Sun StorageTek T10000 tape drive and its first virtual tape library solution to run on the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS). The new products capitalize on Sun's network infrastructure assets, including the Solaris 10 OS, Sun Fire servers and Sun Ultra Workstations, to deliver enhanced tape security and virtualization capabilities. These products add to the already-robust portfolio of integrated security controls offered by Sun, a collection that includes the Solaris 10 OS, the most secure OS on the planet; the UltraSPARC T1 processor-based systems with built-in public key encryption; and Sun's Cryptographic Accelerator 6000 card. "...this announcement is the latest demonstration of the power delivered by the integration of Sun and StorageTek. Leveraging our broad technology portfolio, Sun is expanding its encryption capabilities and delivering device-level tape encryption that is application-agnostic and supports the broadest range of server platforms from mainframes to open systems," said Nigel Dessau, vice president of marketing, Storage, Sun Microsystems. "To address the need of protecting data at multiple points in the lifecycle, Sun is also enabling customers to protect data at the virtualization layer." Today, Sun is announcing the following products: Sun StorageTek Crypto-Ready T10000 tape drive -- dramatically reduces the risk of exposing data to unauthorized parties, protecting against both off-site and on-premise data loss and enabling secure shipment of data. The StorageTek T10000 Crypto-Ready drive supports multiple operating systems including the Solaris OS, z/OS and Windows, and enables customers to encrypt data using the AES-256 encryption algorithm as it is written to the drive, regardless of the application, operating platform or primary storage device and without impacting backup or restore times. More information is available at: its Web site. Sun StorageTek Crypto Key Management Station (KMS) -- provides a simple, secure solution for managing keys used to encrypt and decrypt data on the StorageTek T10000 tape drive. Comprising a Sun Ultra 20 Workstation-based appliance running the Solaris 10 OS and Key Management Software, the Sun StorageTek KMS allows customers to upgrade their environments seamlessly without requiring changes to the operating system, backup software or tape libraries. The solution utilizes AES-256 encryption and is designed for compliance with the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certification. More information is available at: its Web site. StorageTek VTL Plus appliance -- Built on the Sun Fire server platform and the Solaris OS, the StorageTek VTL Plus appliance delivers a 30 percent performance increase that results in faster backups in smaller backup windows with fewer failures. The StorageTek VTL Plus appliance also delivers 2x the mean time between repair (MTBR) of most other VTLs, including those from EMC and IBM. While other vendors rely on less mature operating systems, the StorageTek VTL appliance leverages the Solaris OS to deliver high availability and reliability, reducing downtime and costly repairs and helps to ensure that backups are complete and protected. Offering both encryption of physical tape cartridges and leveraging the security features within the Solaris OS to further protect customer data, the StorageTek VTL Plus appliance provides easy integration into the existing backup environment. More information on the StorageTek VTL Plus is available at: its Web site. Sun also offers Sun StorageTek Encryption Consulting Services to help customers assess their current security plans and identify, evaluate and deploy solutions to support their encryption and key management strategies. The StorageTek Encryption Consulting Services include security risk analysis, vendor selection, vendor interoperability and proof-of-concept, and solution implementation. More information is available at: its Web site. More information on Sun's complete portfolio of integrated security controls from the Solaris 10 OS to the UltraSPARC T1 processor-based systems with built-in public key encryption to Sun's Cryptographic Accelerator 6000 card is available at: its Web site. Pricing & Availability The StorageTek T10000 Tape Drive starts at $37,000. The Encryption option on the StorageTek Crypto Ready T10000 tape drive is priced at $5,000 per drive. The StorageTek KMS with KMS implementation services is $45,000 and will be available in the next 45 days. The StorageTek VTL Plus appliance starts at $140,000 and will be available in the next 90 days.