Cisco and EMC (NYSE: EMC) today announced the intention to expand their strategic alliance to offer customers holistic data security solutions that span different layers of the information technology (IT) infrastructure, including storage, servers, networks and data center security.  The companies plan to build on their existing collaboration to develop integrated products, services and best practices by taking advantage of resources and technology from Cisco, EMC, and RSA, the Security Division of EMC.  These will be designed to provide customers with the ability to discover, secure, track and enforce the usage of sensitive data stored in the data center and at desktop and server endpoints, as well as while sensitive data is transmitted across enterprise networks. 

“The data security market is very fragmented with add-on point tools at every layer of the IT stack which leads to management complexity for customers,” said Robert Gleichauf, chief technology officer of Enterprise, Services and Security at Cisco.  “Cisco, along with EMC and RSA, its security division are strongly positioned to provide a holistic approach to addressing businesses’ data security needs encompassing products, services, and best practice processes across the network and the other layers of the IT infrastructure.”

Integration of Data Loss Prevention

Cisco and RSA intend to collaborate in various areas of Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and provide a rich set of DLP professional service offerings to enterprise customers.  Cisco intends to integrate data-classification technology from RSA’s DLP Suite with Cisco’s DLP capabilities in the network and on desktop and server endpoints, and RSA plans to take advantage of Cisco policy enforcement capabilities with the RSA^® DLP Suite.  The companies intend to enable the RSA DLP Enterprise Manager to manage DLP policy administration for the combined Cisco and RSA DLP solutions.  Cisco and RSA also intend to collaborate on the endpoint to provide integrated host protection, policy control and data protection for desktop, laptop and server platforms.  As a first step, Cisco plans to enhance the DLP capabilities of Cisco® Security Agent with RSA's classification technology.  This new functionality will be able to be managed via the Cisco Security Agent Management Center or the RSA DLP Enterprise Manager.

Collaboration in Data Center Security, Data Encryption and Key Management

Cisco and RSA also intend to continue to collaborate in the area of data center security, data encryption and key management.  Customers will soon be able to encrypt data-at-rest stored on tapes and virtual tapes through the integration of Cisco MDS 9000 Storage Media Encryption (SME) and the RSA^® Key Manager.  This integrated solution is scheduled to be available via EMC in May and will be designed to provide enterprise key management for customers who plan to encrypt sensitive data-at-rest.  Cisco and RSA intend to work together to integrate additional security capabilities into Cisco TrustSec for data-in-motion encryption with the Cisco Nexus 7000 platform.  To provide security for e-mail traffic, RSA intends to interoperate with Cisco’s Registered Envelope Service technology to encrypt sensitive e-mails discovered by RSA DLP Network.

Expand PCI Reference Architectures

Cisco and RSA also plan to expand on their PCI reference architecture which helps enable customers to audit and run reports on their systems to ensure compliance with PCI regulations.  The broader data-security reference architecture will showcase how customers can discover and monitor sensitive information and will provide the appropriate enforcement controls.  The Cisco Lean Retail solution that incorporates five RSA^® PCI Solutions will be enhanced with the release of the Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE) Web Application Firewall.  The Cisco ACE Web Application Firewall can comprehensively inspect and provide security for Web-based application data including HTML, XML and Web service requests, helping customers to efficiently satisfy the June 2008 Payment Card Industry (PCI) application firewall requirements.   

“Data security is very challenging.  Due to regulatory and non-regulatory drivers, customers need to secure sensitive data and gain stronger visibility into where that data resides.  The answer lies in coordinated product innovation, strategic partnership and professional services,” said Dennis Hoffman, Vice President and General Manager for Data Security and Chief Strategy Officer at RSA, the Security Division of EMC.  “By working with industry leaders, like Cisco, we are helping our customers solve these challenges.  By developing solutions with Cisco, customers can discover,  monitor, and enforce the use of sensitive data directly into the infrastructure – no matter where it moves, how it moves or where it is stored.”

Sourced From: Text 100 Public Relations Consultancy