Lately, it seems like the whole world has been drawn into information security. Whether it's consumers, government agencies or technology vendors, everyone now realizes that information security is the price we pay for pervasive global communications.

Storage professionals and vendors are part of this mix, but a quandary exists. Storage devices are at the back of the technology stack, relatively blind to the software logic above. Protecting storage devices is a worthy goal, but what users truly want are information safeguards, not just spinning disks and magnetic media. Leading storage vendors have noticed this trend and are preparing strategies for information-centric security, a concept similar to secure information lifecycle management (ILM). The goal is to classify data based on business rules; protect data based on value; and enforce security, privacy and usage policies regardless of information location.

Secure ILM is a great idea, but how will it evolve? The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) believes the industry will receive a major push from an unfamiliar source, the Trusted Computing Group (TCG).