VMware has released its security appliance that will sit in the virtualisation layer.
The virtualisation company's announcement, at last year's VMware partner conference, that it was working on an appliance that would live natively in the hypervisor, was met with interest by several security vendors.
This year's VMworld Europe was held a few weeks ago in Cannes, where the company revealed the security appliance to the majority of partners. The security appliance is now available to local customers.
According to Reza Malekzadeh, senior director of marketing at VMware, security companies have greeted the appliance well and are building it into their software stacks.
The security of virtualised environments has been a CIO hot topic for some time, specifically since most virtualised environments do not allow people to monitor traffic between the virtual segments.
Malekzadeh says VMSafe will allow monitoring of every piece of information that passes along the hypervisor, under the operating system. “This allows companies to implement an extra view of security in their businesses,” he explains.
However, VMware says the appliance is not meant to replace existing security measures; rather it should be implemented as another angle of security. “It is an innovative way of doing things, which the vendors are starting to take up.”
According to Malekzadeh, the appliance was based on a technology that it received through the acquisition of Blue Lane Technologies, which it bought in October.
Malekzadeh says the company is pleased with the growth it has shown over the last year. He explains that the boost has been in part thanks to companies looking for ways to save on costs. “People are reducing their investment in technology and are definitely more cautious. Server consolidation is a cost saver, and people can see their return on investment within the first year.”
VMware saw many new competitors enter the market over the last two years, but the company maintains its majority market share.
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