Microsoft Signs Storage Vendors To Its RADIUS Storage Security Program

Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) is a protocol that was previously adopted as a standard by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), said Zane Adam, director of product management and marketing for Microsoft's Enterprise Storage Division.

Brocade Communications Systems on Monday demonstrated its RADIUS commitment in a joint demonstration with Microsoft on Monday, and is expected to implement it for Windows-based SANs by year-end, said Adam.

QLogic and McData also have plans to implement the RADIUS protocol, but Adam said he is not sure when they will do so.

RADIUS is aimed at easing the management of SAN security by combining what has been until now a number of different lists of personnel authorized to configure, modify or delete a SAN into a single list tied to Active Directory, said Adam.

RADIUS is already implemented in Windows 2000 and is a part of Windows Server 2003, Adam said.

By integrating their management software into the RADIUS environment, vendors such as Brocade will enable SAN security to be controlled with a single point of management, which should increase the security of a SAN while reducing the cost of such security, said Adam.