Solix this week is expected to introduce a version of its archiving software that protects data by applying security such as masking or encryption.

ArchiveJinni archives structured, semistructured and unstructured data generated by database applications such as Oracle or Siebel. This upgrade, Version 3.1, introduces the capability to encrypt or decrypt data, and mask, null or substitute one type of data for another to obscure it.

In masking data, specific alphabetic characters are replaced with other alphabetic characters. Nulling out data replaces the original data with a null value. In substitution, a customer will supply a value that may replace proprietary formulas. Shuffling data involves scrambling it between the rows and columns in the database. These are increasingly important capabilities as data is kept longer.

"Most people worry about the external threat of accessing that information, but with database information it is different, because developers and internal parties have access to that information," says Brian Babineau, senior analyst for the Enterprise Strategy Group. "With this software, you can mask sensitive rows and columns in the database, so your developer resources do not see them."

ArchiveJinni is a Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition application that works with EMC's Centera storage array and HP's Reference Information Storage System.

Solix's product competes with those from Outerbay (acquired by HP in February) and Princeton Softech.

The base price for ArchiveJinni is $60,000; an additional license fee of $12,500 is required per module per instance.