Storage availability using cryptographic splitting

A method of maintaining operation of a plurality of secure storage appliances, the method comprising:

• assigning a volume to a primary secure storage appliance located in a secure data storage network the primary secure storage appliance selected from among a plurality of secure storage appliances located in the secure data storage network, the volume presented as a virtual disk to a client device and mapped to physical storage at each of a plurality of storage systems;
• presenting an administrative interface to an administrator of the secure data storage network, the administrative interface presenting the plurality of secure storage appliances as a virtual secure storage appliance;
• presenting a common set of administrative settings for each of the plurality of secure storage appliances associated with the virtual secure storage appliance, such that, upon detecting at one of the plurality of secure storage appliances a failure of the primary secure storage appliance, the common set of administrative settings remain accessible to the administrator.