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LOS GATOS, Calif., April 1, 2002 -Network security
and flow classification market leader Hifn™ (Nasdaq:
HIFN) announced today a strategic partnership with Trebia
Networks, Inc., a leader in system-on-silicon solutions for
storage networking applications, to jointly provide the most
cost-effective secure IP storage area networking (SAN) solutions.
The partnership is intended to leverage the strengths of
the two product lines to provide all of the elements needed
for OEM customers to develop standards-compliant IP storage
solutions, including leading-edge products, reference designs,
interoperability guidelines and comprehensive support on both
IP storage networking and security processing.
The IETF’s current proposals for both iSCSI and FCIP
(Fiber Channel over Internet Protocol), expected to be finalized
by mid-year, call for solutions to provide support for IPSec
as the method of preserving data security and integrity.
"We have been evaluating the impact of Security on
IP storage networks and are very excited to have found Trebia
as partner for Hifn’s entrée into this high-performance
security space," says Chris Kenber, Hifn chairman and
CEO. "Combining Trebia’s innovative storage processing
products with Hifn’s proven and market leading security
systems, enables a superior solution set for customers."
The Hifn and Trebia partnership will involve multiple activities.
Initially, the companies are focusing a significant portion
of the partnership effort on near term customer education
and cooperative sales and support efforts, working together
to create reference designs, application notes and joint development
platforms and tools for IPSEC based IP storage solutions.
Joint sales efforts are well underway today. Longer term,
the companies plan to broaden the activity to include collaboration
on product plans as appropriate.
Bob Conrad, president and CEO of Trebia, adds: "Building
secure, multi-gigabit IP SANs requires considerable resources
and expertise. We believe that a collaborative effort between
the two leaders in security processors and storage processors
is the best approach for customers. By partnering with Hifn,
we’re able to offer comprehensive and optimal solutions
that meet the emerging standards very quickly, thus reducing
the time-to-market cycle that is so critical for most SAN
manufacturers."
IP Storage protocols such as iSCSI and FCIP enable block
level storage (SCSI) commands to be transported over TCP/IP,
leveraging the enormous IP networking infrastructure and knowledge
base in place today. In order to match the performance of
incumbent Fibre Channel SAN technology, IP storage solutions
must run at Gigabit rates (1 Gbps links) without disrupting
the interoperability benefits of Gigabit Ethernet and TCP/IP
networks. In addition, since IP networks are ubiquitous, IP
Storage networks, unlike existing SAN installations, must
provide the mechanism needed to ensure secure traffic flows.
IP Storage standardization efforts have addressed this need
by requiring the protocols to support IPSEC/3DES encryption
and IKE public/private key exchange. The combination of IPSEC/IKE
with the IP storage protocol standards, while ensuring secure
any-to-any SAN flows, poses a few challenges to SAN equipment
and system suppliers. These include how to build cost effective,
space efficient solutions while integrating the hardware components,
drivers and application software needed to support iSCSI/FCIP
products that are IPSEC compliant, and how to design high
performance solutions capable of running secure IP storage
flows at the 1Gbps+ rates that SAN applications require. The
Hifn and Trebia collaboration is designed to provide the products,
design expertise and support needed for customers to overcome
these challenges.
"The inclusion of the IPSEC requirement within IP Storage
standards forces two disparate technologies, storage processing
and security processing, tobe integrated together," said
Robert Gray, Research Director of Storage Systems at IDC.
"An alliance such as this one, which incorporates mutually
cohesive marketing/sales and product development, will help
customers understand how to design secure IP Storage systems
both now and in the future."
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