Ciphertex Data Security today unveiled AI·S at DAFITC 2026, a software-defined storage platform designed to give enterprises centralized visibility and control over where their data lives and who can access it. Rapid AI adoption has exposed the limits of fragmented enterprise data environments, with much of the information organizations need scattered across systems that were never designed to function as a single data environment.
Ciphertex launches AI·S software-defined storage platform for enterprise data security
Provides centralized discovery, governance, and access controls for AI and analytics workloads
Supports heterogeneous storage architectures including on-premise, edge, and cloud
Features role-based access controls, encryption, audit trails, and chain-of-custody capabilities
Digital fingerprinting and just-in-time integrity verification for validating stored information
Optimized for unstructured data with metadata-rich object management and AI-enhanced search
AI and analytics workloads are increasing the pressure on organizations to access larger volumes of information across distributed systems. The more data applications need to reach, the more difficult it becomes to maintain consistent visibility, governance and security across the environment. Consolidating every data set into a single location or storage technology is often impractical. Storage technologies such as NVMe, SSD, HDD and LTO serve different requirements, while cost, accessibility and protection needs can dictate where information should reside. Sensitive data may need to remain on-premise even as other workloads operate in cloud or edge environments.
AI·S supports heterogeneous storage architectures, allowing organizations to use different resources according to performance, protection and cost requirements while applying consistent management and governance. Policy-based lifecycle controls allow organizations to replicate, migrate, retain, version and delete information across the environment, while write once, read many and immutable storage options help protect forensic evidence and other records from modification or deletion.
"Organizations already have enormous amounts of valuable data, but storage fragmentation can make it difficult to know what they have and where it resides," said Jerry Kaner, founder of Ciphertex Data Security. "You can't secure what you don't know you have and you can't use what you can't find. AI·S treats unified discovery and control as inseparable problems."
AI·S provides centralized management across on-premise storage, edge deployments and cloud resources while applying role-based access controls, encryption at rest and in transit, audit trails and chain-of-custody capabilities. Digital fingerprinting and just-in-time integrity verification provide additional controls for validating stored information. Organizations can keep data across existing storage environments while managing it through a common interface rather than consolidating everything into one repository.
The platform integrates with Windows Domain and LDAP, supports multifactor authentication through Google Authenticator without requiring internet connectivity and can incorporate air-gapped storage for additional ransomware protection. Administrators can also define who receives access to externally shared data, how long that access remains available and what recipients are permitted to do with the information.
Governance is only half the problem. Enterprises also need to know what information they have and be able to find relevant data across large, distributed storage environments. Without centralized visibility, valuable information can become difficult to locate and use, limiting its availability for analytics and emerging AI workloads.
Optimized for unstructured data, AI·S provides metadata-rich object management with custom metadata models and indexing as well as full-text, metadata and fast parallel search capabilities. AI-enhanced search provides another way to locate relevant information across distributed resources as data volumes grow. The platform supports Amazon S3- and Azure Blob Storage-compatible APIs, along with file system integration, enabling cloud-native applications and distributed resources to interact with the storage environment without requiring data consolidation.
AI·S integrates object storage capabilities into Ciphertex's SecureNAS portable and rackmount platforms as part of RhinOS. This extends the software-defined storage environment to organizations that require local control over sensitive information while supporting data-intensive workloads at the edge and within secure data centers.
Ciphertex will be attending DAFITC 2026, Aug. 24-26 in Montgomery, Alabama. Attendees can meet with the team at Booth 466 to learn more about the platform and discuss system requirements.
About Ciphertex Data Security
Ciphertex is a Los Angeles-based American company that manufactures encrypted network-attached storage for organizations and agencies of all sizes. A pioneering leader in data storage solutions, Ciphertex specializes in secure, portable systems built to withstand extreme conditions, as well as scalable solutions for businesses of any size that need to protect critical data. Its products deliver industry-leading protection, reliability and scalability for the world's most data-intensive industries.
