12.5 Enterprise Module Question

[Rich1955]

I'm a familiar user to 11.x products.

New user to 12.x products.

I just did a new install of 12.5 to a server and have a question about Data Encryption.

I need to encrypt all of our backup jobs. We backup to a LTO3 drive. I'm familiar on how to encrypt jobs in 11.x

If I'm reading correctly the "Help" files in 12.x it would appear that I need the Enterprise Module to do data encryption.

It states the the Enterprise Module allows "data encryption performed by, or at, the CA backup Server"..

Am I correct or am I reading this wrong ?

Thanks,

Rich

 

[davidmichel]

I have it installed and so cannot test it, but I thought the enterprise module was needed only for hardware available with the LTO4 drives and software encryption worked the same.

 

[CrystalSinger]

Yes you're reading it right. Software encryption can be performed by the backup server before squirting it to tape. If you want the hardware to do the encryption, then you need uptodate backup devices such as lto4's. You need the Enterprise module for support of encryption.

There's a quite good article on their website:-

http://arcserve.com/Files/TechnicalDocuments/arcserve_data_encryption.pdf

Then there's the question of which is best - software vs hardware encryption. The software option puts additional load on your backup server but if your server is up to the job, then may mean you don't need to buy new tape devices/libraries.