A storage administrator must reduce the traffic load over the LAN and secure data back-ups over the LAN. Which of the following items should the administrator consider FIRST?

Hosting a LAN data compression application would compress data before sending it over the LAN, reducing traffic, but it doesn't secure the data with encryption and still uses the LAN for transfer.

Changing the data retention policy affects how long data is kept, not how much traffic is generated during backup or how secure the data is during transit over the LAN.

LAN-free in-line data encryption involves backing up data directly from the host to the backup target (e.g., tape library or SAN) without traversing the main LAN, thus significantly reducing LAN traffic. Applying encryption in-line further secures the data during this process before it reaches the backup media.

Content Addressable Storage (CAS) is a type of object storage that uses content-based identifiers, primarily for archiving and ensuring data integrity, but it doesn't inherently reduce LAN traffic or provide in-line data encryption specifically for backups over a LAN.