Almost All Future Drives Will Self Encrypt, Says Tom Coughlin, in Industry's First Forecast on SEDs
Several years ago, Trusted Computing Group announced the final version of its specification, called Opal that enables interoperable, self-encrypting drives (SEDs). These drives, of course, automatically and continuously encrypt all data using the drive controller. The key never leaves the drive and because encryption is done in hardware; data can't be accessed unless the rightful, authorized owner boots up the drive. Drives are erased in microseconds, making them safe for re-purposing or disposal.
At the time, the industry greeted this development warmly, and since then, virtually all drive makers now include SEDs in their product line-ups. The spec works for increasingly popular SSDs as well, many of which are now available. However, as these things do, it admittedly takes a bit of time for a new capability to completely embed itself into all products, and the PC and other device makers consuming drives still are ramping up their offerings to include SEDs. Dell, HP and others offer SEDs and others plan to include them soon.
While these developments are encouraging to those who have invested years of effort into the development of the Opal specification and resulting products, it's always useful to get some quantitative insight into a market. Since no market research on SEDs exists, storage industry pundit Tom Coughlin has created the industry's first forecast of the SED market.
Coughlin talked a bit about this forecast at today's National Security Agency (NSA) Trusted Computing Conference and Expo. In that talk, Tom highlighted some key findings, including that by 2013, more than 80 percent of SSDs will have SED capability. He estimates that by 2017, almost all HDDs will be SEDs.
In addition to the new report, TCG has developed a new white paper examining the benefits and opportunities related to deploying SEDs. That whitepaper can be found here.
If you missed the talk today in Orlando at the NSA event, Coughlin will review the report in detail at a free webcast on Wednesday, October 5, 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. East. To register or get more information, go to https://trustedcomputinggroup.wufoo.com/forms/m7x3w7/.
Categories: Data Protection