Storage systems must provide reliable and convenient data access to all authorized users while simultaneously preventing threats coming from outside or even inside the enterprise.

Security threats come in many forms, from unauthorized access to data, data tampering, denial of service, and obtaining privileged access to systems.

According to the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA), data security in the context of storage systems is responsible for safeguarding the data against theft, prevention of unauthorized disclosure of data, prevention of data tampering, and accidental corruption. This process ensures accountability, authenticity, business continuity, and regulatory compliance.

Security for storage systems can be classified as follows:

Data storage (data at rest, which includes data durability and immutability)
Access to data
Movement of data (data in flight)
Management of data

IBM SpectrumTM Scale addresses all four aspects of security by securing data at rest (protecting data at rest with snapshots, and backups and immutability features) and securing data in flight (providing secure management of data, and secure access to data by using authentication and authorization across multiple supported access protocols). These protocols include POSIX, NFS, SMB, Hadoop, and Object (REST). For automated data management, it is equipped with powerful information lifecycle management (ILM) tools that can help administer unstructured data by providing the correct security for the correct data.

This IBM RedpaperTM publication details the various aspects of security in IBM Spectrum ScaleTM, including the following items:

Security of data in transit
Security of data at rest
Authentication
Authorization
Hadoop security
Immutability
Secure administration
Audit logging
Security for transparent cloud tiering (TCT)
Security for OpenStack drivers

Felipe Knop