With a little planning, your iSCSI storage network can be even more secure than a legacy Fibre Channel storage network.

If you're thinking about implementing an iSCSI storage network, as sure as the sun sets each night, someone will ask about security. Here's the short answer: iSCSI can be as secure as you want it to be.

"Now that storage is being put back on Ethernet and IP networks, customers are becoming concerned about access control and encryption," says Kyle Fitze, marketing director for Hewlett-Packard Co. SANs, StorageWorks Division. The commodity protocols and hardware used in iSCSI networks can, in theory, connect to just about any computer, from a rack-mounted server to a laptop or handheld PC. iSCSI was built from the ground up with strong authentication and encryption capabilities ... as long as they're used.