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Although we're not picking a winner in this review, Cisco's 9216i switch (pictured) impressed us with its broad range of functionality. Granted, it does absolutely nothing to protect hosts, but the 9216i let us handle authorization, access control and encryption from a single platform and was easily the most comprehensive offering we tested. Virtual LANs nicely restricted which devices, and even LUNs (logical unit numbers), could be seen from any given host, meaning that a breach mustn't serve up all your data, just that which the compromised server must see. If compliance is a concern, Cisco's integration with RADIUS provides the ability to maintain access logging.
Although the Cisco 9216i--or any other switches we tested--won't be a fit for installations with other vendors' Fibre Channel infrastructures already in place or that use NAS or iSCSI, we found viable ways to satisfy storage-security needs in nearly any configuration.
Access Control
Access control should be straightforward. And if you simply need to determine who can manage your storage network, then it is. But once you start considering who can see what data, things aren't so clear-cut. The problem lies in the overlap of the storage infrastructure with the users and groups defined in most IT operations. For example, in a database you create users and give them access to the data, so the database-encryption products we looked at did not worry about access control. For file- and block-level encryption products, only an add-on at the client level could allow access control by user. Decru has a good solution to this problem--we could even define which applications had access to a given file or folder.
Making the jump from outdated legacy technology to a more modern digital infrastructure will allow businesses to innovate at the speed and scale needed in today’s marketplace.
The business world is speeding up. The longer IT leaders wait to get their needs met, the more at risk their businesses and their jobs will be.
By arming SD-WAN networks with end-to-end intelligence, analytics-driven predictions, and predictive automation solutions, IT teams can simplify infrastructure management and assure higher levels of quality experiences for users.
