Gartner defines mobile data protection (MDP) products and services as software security methods that enforce confidentiality policies by encrypting data, and then defending access to that encrypted data on the mass storage systems of end-user workstations. These storage systems include the primary boot drive of a workstation, additional system drives and removable devices used for portability. Storage technologies affected by MDP include magnetic hard-disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), self-encrypting drives (SEDs), flash drives and optical media. Several methods allow MDP products to delegate all or part of the encryption process to be accomplished by hardware elements, including the CPU and drive controller, and to native capabilities in the OS. Some vendors also have protection capabilities for network storage, and a few also support cloud-based storage environments as an extension to the desktop.