Report from Data Center World: RFID increases IT asset security
Posted by Bret Kinsella on Thu, Oct 07, 2010
As I wrap-up a week at AFCOM's Data Center World, I thought I
would highlight a theme that has gained a lot of traction recently in IT circles. The proliferation of data on devices and their inevitable movement and loss has created and incredible challenge for data security. While no one was surprised to hear about encryption and authentication as top security issues, you may be surprised that the keynote speaker listed physical security for IT asset tracking as the first item.
Physical IT asset security and RFID
The keynote speaker, Subodh Kulkarni of Imation, started out by rattling off the data and device growth numbers: 200,000+ iPhone apps, 30 trillion emails and 500 million smart phones. He then made the following statement, “speed and mobility compromises security.” Business users of technology are demanding information, “anytime, anywhere, on any device.” This means that more and more of these devices have sensitive data on them that enterprises are scrambling to secure.
With the cost of a single data breach reaching an average of $6.6 million in one recent study, there are hard costs enterprises must bear when data is lost. If you consider that since 2005 nearly half of all data breaches in the Financial Services industry were physical security issues you can start to see why physical security was the top item listed.
Security is also one of the few areas in the data center that has not been automated. It still relies on human vigilance and closed circuit video. Not surprisingly, Mr. Kulkarni cited RFID as a tracking technology that can increase IT asset visibility and security. It provides a tool to track IT asset movement automatically even when humans are not present. This echoes the conclusions of ODIN’s September blog on RFID and IT asset security and recent white paper.
RFID is a hot topic among Data Center Managers
As Patrick mentioned in his blog on Monday, RFID was a hot topic at Data Center World. This started on day one and continued through to the best attended session of the conference’s final day titled: RFID 2.0 in the Data Center – automating Security and Audit Capabilities.
While RFID clearly delivers operational efficiency benefits in the Data Center, the interesting shift is that security is starting to take center stage in many discussions.
Have you seen RFID security application discussions on the increase? Comment below.
To learn more about RFID, review Videos, Benchmark Research and White Papers here: Learn RFID