The arrival of mass market USB 3.0 devices could pose new security risks for business, industry commentators are warning.
“Companies need to start working now on their IT security systems, and in particular, their policy enforcement technologies,” said Andy Cordial, MD of Origin Storage.
He explained that when the new USB units hit the retail channel by the end of the year they will boast data transfer speeds ten times greater than current generation technology. When you think that these devices can hoover up data at the rate of a gigabyte every four seconds, it’s clear that the use of USB sticks, portable drives and a variety of other portable units is going to be a must-have in the corporate data storage stakes,
When the USB 3.0 phenomenon takes off, it will be something of a tidal wave, he said, because of their speed and convenience.
Several types of USB 3.0 device were on show this at the Intel Developer Forum, which closes today in San Francisco, from the likes of Symwave and MCCI, Fujitsu and LucidPort
The technology which is backed by Intel, HP, Microsoft, NEC, NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments targets fast sync-and-go transfer applications in the PC, consumer and mobile segments that are necessary as digital media become ubiquitous and file sizes increase up to and beyond 25GB.
The new USB 3.0 products will transfer data at up to 250 Mbytes/s, while conventional USB 2.0 drives use a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 480 Mbits/s, or 60 Mbytes/s. Existing USB 2.0 drives run at relatively pedestrian rates between 25 to 35 Mbytes/s.
IT managers have six months to prepare for the increasingly widespread usage of these devices, Cordial said.
The InStat research house is cited as predicting that USB 3.0 will have 70% attach rates on notebook and desktop computers by 2012.
