Trio of companies agree to clone clients' data and preserve it in 'electronic vaults.' (Newsmakers)Trio of companies agree to clone clients' data and preserve it in |electronic vaults' A Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. "electronic vaulting vaulting Gymnastics exercise in which the athlete leaps over a form that was originally intended to mimic a horse. At one time, the pommel horse was used in the vaulting exercise, with the pommels (handles) removed. " company, which stores its customers' computer files in an offsite vault, last month signed a $30 million agreement with two big-time telecommunications companies See telecom company. to speed up data transmission by more than 20-fold. Secure Data Network Inc., headquartered near L.A. International Airport, is lending its proprietary software and hardware to the joint venture with PacTel Corp. and Northern Telecom. Secure Data's system automatically siphons computer records from a business site and -- if necessary -- wire back copies after the originals are lost or damaged. To keep the data out of the wrong hands, it is first encrypted en·crypt tr.v. en·crypt·ed, en·crypt·ing, en·crypts 1. To put into code or cipher. 2. Computer Science . "Only the client holds the keys and passwords," said company Sales Vice President Elizabeth Weldon. Copies of the data are stored at three facilities under the company's control, the safest being "a NIKE missile site specifically designed for secure, environmentally controlled data storage," according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. company literature. Secure Data has been selling this service for three years, said President John Golfis. But current transmission uses the relatively slow telephone-line (analog) transmission or much more costly single-use digital cable lines. The companies will spend $30 million over three years to hook into high-speed digital-data lines in the so-called Integrated Services Digital Network Integrated services digital network (ISDN) A generic term referring to the integration of communications services transported over digital facilities such as wire pairs, coaxial cables, optical fibers, microwave radio, and satellites. . Dumping data through that network, which is leased by public phone companies to businesses, could be done "at a fraction of the (current) cost," said Secure Data Vice President Frank Reed Frank Reed (born Frank Kevin Reed, 16 September 1954, Omaha, Nebraska) is the current lead singer of the vocal group known as The Chi-Lites. Career Reed along with original members Marshall Thompson and Robert "Squirrel" Lester; and other lead vocalist Anthony Watson, . But why care about security when your staff is religiously making back-up copies of their work? "The back-up that people normally do and leave in the office is vulnerable," reminded Golfis. Fire, flood, magnetic damage or failure of the disk drive will do the trick. Golfis said data "loops" are already installed to serve the LAX and downtown L.A. areas. Torrance and other local cities will come, he added. Secure Data is majority owned by a group of private investors, said Golfis, and did about $2 million in sales last year. |
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