To help organizations secure and protect their virtual server infrastructure, IBM has announced a new product to safeguard virtual server environments and allow businesses a more secure path for transitioning critical assets to virtual enterprise data centers.
The new product is called IBM Virtual Server Security for VMware vSphere, Greg Adams, director, product and service management, IBM Internet Security Systems, tells 5 Minute Briefing. Driving the need for the new solution is the explosion of virtualization, and the requirement still for security. "We see virtualization growing at such a rapid pace that it is anticipated to be a $10 billion market in about 5 years," states Adams.
"As virtualization has really started to take off, it has added new complexity to the security environment," Adams explains. While virtual environments offer many benefits, they require that clients take measures to combat the next generation of security threats and compliance challenges due to the reduced visibility and control that come with the addition of more information technology layers. "We saw this several years ago and knew that it was going to be a challenge and we have developed this technology to address it," Adams notes.
The new IBM Virtual Server Security for VMware vSphere is intended to help companies address the new security concerns that emerge with virtualization, providing protection for every layer of the virtual infrastructure including the hypervisor, operating system, network, applications, server-based virtual desktops, virtual machine and traffic between virtual machines. By integrating with VMware VMsafe technology, the new software provides customers with better visibility, security granularity and scalability in their growing virtual data centers.
Automatic protection features include Virtual Network Access Control (VNAC) to limit network access from a virtual server until security posture is confirmed; rootkit detection and prevention to increase virtual server uptime and availability; virtual infrastructure monitoring and reporting to identify vulnerabilities; and autodiscovery and virtual network segment protection to provide visibility and control of the virtual infrastructure.
Additionally, this new offering complements additional IBM capabilities for securing the virtual environment, such as controlling access and monitoring privilege.
IBM Virtual Server Security for VMware vSphere will be available in December 2009.
For more information on IBM Virtual Server Security for VMware vSphere, go here.