VMware vSphere 4 To Ship With VMsafe APIs

PRESS RELEASE

PALO ALTO, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Apr 23, 2009 Today at RSA Conference 2009, VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, announced that the VMware VMsafeTM APIs will ship with VMware vSphereTM 4 when the product becomes generally available later in the second quarter of 2009, with security vendors expected to deliver integrated solutions this year. These solutions combined with the unique new protection features in VMware vSphere 4, the industry's first operating system for building the internal cloud, will help provide customers with integrated, "better than physical" security of their IT infrastructures.

VMware VMsafe enables partners to monitor and protect at the hypervisor layer, providing visibility and introspection into machine activity that can be deeper and more comprehensive than the physical locations where network and endpoint security solutions traditionally enforce policy. Multiple vantage points into virtual hardware such as disk, network and memory enable a diverse range of security technologies delivered as virtual appliances to benefit from better protection and greater performance and efficiency, including firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention, and anti-virus engines.

"We are excited to see security partners taking advantage of VMware VMsafe technology in VMware vSphere 4 to build solutions that help our mutual customers protect their environments better than they could with an all-physical infrastructure," said Dr. Stephen Herrod, chief technology officer, VMware. "VMware vSphere 4 equipped with VMware VMsafe uniquely offers customers an advanced platform to run applications securely within private clouds and, when combined with added functionality from our partners, a broad choice of security solutions."

VMware's Robust Security Ecosystem Rallies to Make Customer Environments Safer

VMware collaborates with numerous vendors in the security space to help make customers' virtual environments even safer than physical infrastructure. Several providers of firewall, intrusion prevention and antivirus solutions will bring products to market in 2009.

Altor Networks is integrating the Altor VF purpose-built stateful firewall with VMware vSphere 4 using VMware VMsafe to deliver granular, per-VM and inter-VM security with blazing performance. In addition, Altor VF will include patent-pending virtual-aware IDS featuring intelligent scanning that uses the VMware VMsafe APIs and VMware vCenter Server integration to apply only relevant signatures to each virtual machine. "For the first time, a hypervisor-based firewall using VMware VMsafe will enable defense-in-depth at the individual VM-level while delivering 3-5X faster performance than a firewall/IDS in a virtual machine," said Amir Ben-Efraim, chief executive officer, Altor Networks. The Altor VF is available today, with VMware VMsafe integration forthcoming later in Q2 2009.

Oded Gonda, vice president of network security products at Check Point Technologies, said of its upcoming Security Gateway VE (Virtual Edition): "Check Point Security Gateway VE integration with VMware VMsafe will provide customers the unique ability to inspect traffic deeper at the kernel and virtual switch port levels. It will secure traffic between virtual machines and will support the full benefits of VMware vSphere 4 with dedicated, optimized inspection and protection."

Available this week from Reflex Systems is vTrust, Dynamic Policy Enforcement for its Virtualization Management Center (VMC), providing security across the entire datacenter using VMware VMsafe. "We're pleased to be actively delivering our innovative management and security solution for VMware vSphere 4 with our kernel-level integration through the VMware VMsafe initiative," said Pete Privateer, CEO of Reflex Systems. "The ability of VMware vSphere 4 to transform virtual services into the cloud is of particular benefit to many of our joint customers. Likewise, Reflex VMC's vTrust integration into VMware vSphere 4 will make managing and securing virtual environments, whether hosted locally, remotely, or in the cloud, very straightforward with a single management interface."

Third Brigade is demonstrating at RSA Conference 2009 a new component in its product architecture using VMware VMsafe to enable intrusion detection and prevention (IDS/IPS) and firewall protection for VMware vSphere 4. The Deep Security Virtual Appliance, commercially available later in 2009, complements the existing protection capabilities of IDS/IPS, firewall, integrity monitoring and log inspection provided by Deep Security Agents for virtual machines. "We are pleased to be adding Deep Security Virtual Appliance to our comprehensive security solution, allowing customers to have deployment flexibility for protecting their private and public cloud environments," says Bill McGee, VP of Products and Engineering for Third Brigade.

"As a key partner, Trend Micro has been working closely with VMware on the VMware VMsafe initiative from the outset," says Punit Minocha, vice president of corporate development at Trend Micro. "With VMware vSphere 4, Trend Micro is able to offer content security solutions that can protect previously unprotected virtual assets and improve the security posture of the virtual environment. Our VMsafe-integrated security solution will enable businesses to leverage the economic benefits of virtualization with the reassurance that at the same time they can now receive higher levels of security than equivalent physical networks." The VMsafe integrated solution from Trend Micro is expected to be available in 2H 2009.

VMware Continues Work with Partners to Advance VMsafe Innovation

VMware is also working with additional VMware VMsafe partners including IBM; McAfee; RSA, The Security Division of EMC; and Symantec that are exploring enablement and integration of innovative security solutions in areas ranging from intrusion prevention to information integrity.

"VMware VMsafe offers a tremendous amount of value to customers deploying either server or desktop virtualization," said Brian Foster, senior vice president of product marketing at McAfee. "As an industry-leading security provider, McAfee is able to leverage the entire range of VMware VMsafe APIs by having visibility into virtual network, disk, memory and CPU activities. McAfee offers a broad range of security solutions that protect customers' systems, networks, and data, regardless of whether they are physical or virtual, online or offline. McAfee has been working with VMware to integrate its solutions into the VMware VMsafe APIs in order to offer our customers faster performance and higher level of protection."

"RSA is collaborating with VMware to leverage the unprecedented visibility provided by the VMware VMsafe Security APIs to build better than physical security solutions," said Bret Hartman, Chief Technology Officer of RSA', The Security Division of EMC. "At the RSA Conference this week we are demonstrating the ability to enforce data loss prevention policy at virtual trust zone boundaries, using RSA's DLP solutions integrated into VMware vShield Zones. This is an excellent example of how the two companies are working together to extend and enhance the VMware VMsafe APIs."

About VMware

VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter—bringing cloud computing to businesses of all sizes. Customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2008 revenues of $1.9 billion, more than 130,000 customers and more than 22,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is majority-owned by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC). For more information, visit www.vmware.com.

VMware and VMsafe are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. The use of the word "partner" or "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.