Flexible, Secure Data-at-Rest Storage for ISR Applications

Flexible, Secure Data-at-Rest Storage for ISR Applications

An industry leader in the design, development and deployment of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) sensors required a removable storage device for their VPX system. The device needed to be 3U VPX form factor, high capacity and incorporate encryption to secure the data at rest. Interoperability between the single board computers (SBC) and the storage was desired in order to mitigate schedule risk associated with the system integration.

The ISR sensor would be deployed. This would require the storage device to be removable for transport to a secure site where the data would be offloaded. The removal of the storage device needed to be quick, easy and could not require special tools. In addition, the module had to be small enough in size that it could be transportable by hand.

Deploying the sensor required the data to be secured. The customer wanted advanced encryption such as FIPS 140-2 encryption. The storage device needed to support internally generated keys. This would ensure the sensitive data was protected at rest and could be transported to the field station for offload without the fear of losing the data.

The type of sensor being deployed would produce large amounts of data at a high data rate. In order to store the data, a high capacity would be needed. The customer was looking for 1 TB of storage capacity per single-board computer (SBC).

During the integration process, the customer determined that some minor modifications to the 3U VPX module would be needed in order to provide the complete storage system capabilities. The interoperability issues that appeared during the system integration threatened the overall schedule of the program. These issues needed to be addressed in order to deliver the system on time.

Download the case study to learn more.