McAfee, the world's largest dedicated security company, has announced that it has entered into a broad relationship with VMware to advance virtualisation security.
As part of the relationship, McAfee plans to embed the newly announced VMware VMsafe security technology into future security solution offerings.
McAfee has also signed an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreement with VMware to utilise its VMware ESX Server 3i technology in future security solutions, which could include purpose-built versions of VMware ESX Server 3i to support McAfee security technology.
In addition, McAfee has announced beta availability of its new e-mail and Web security virtual appliance, which is built from the ground up for the VMware platform. The virtual appliance has the same features and effectiveness of the physical McAfee security appliances and helps organisations defend their networks from spam, malware and malicious Web sites, while at the same time reduces the overall cost of security for customers and allow customers to implement security faster.
"With the popularity of virtualisation and the rush to reap its benefits, security must not become an afterthought. McAfee is in an excellent position to advance the levels of security in virtualised environments," says Chris van Niekerk, regional director: Africa at McAfee. "McAfee offers real security for virtual environments and our strategic relationship with VMware will make our solutions even better."
"When it comes to security, there's no better way to run applications than in virtual machines," says Brian Byun, vice-president of global partners and solutions at VMware. "As one of the world's top security companies, McAfee recognises the momentum of virtualisation as a transformative technology and is ahead of the curve to ensure the strongest possible security for proliferating virtualised environments."
VMsafe: a new security paradigm
McAfee is the first security company to adopt and publicly demonstrate VMware VMsafe security technology. VMware unveiled VMsafe recently at VMworld Europe in Cannes, France, where Christopher Bolin, McAfee's chief technology officer, showed how VMsafe offers unprecedented levels of security for virtualised environments.
"With VMsafe, VMware introduces a new paradigm in the security of virtualisation just like the company introduced a new paradigm in computing with its game-changing virtualisation software," says Bolin. "Together McAfee and VMware will be able to protect virtual environments in ways beyond what is available to protect physical environments today."
McAfee demonstrated VMsafe on stage during a keynote speech by Mendel Rosenblum, VMware's chief scientist.
As part of its strategy to provide the most complete solution for virtualisation security, McAfee has also unveiled a new Foundstone Professional Services offering. Foundstone's Virtual Infrastructure Security Assessment is the first security service dedicated to virtualisation. Foundstone has been helping companies secure their IT environments for years. (See separate press release: McAfee, Inc first to help businesses deploy virtualisation securely.)
Industry leadership
McAfee's security risk management offerings are fully compatible with VMware virtualisation and help enterprises create a safe computing environment. McAfee delivers a complete solution spanning virtualised servers, networks and desktops:
* Servers: securely locks down and protects virtualised servers and critical data;
* Networks: enforces security policies for virtual systems;
* Desktop: locks out major threat vectors by protecting remote and virtual desktops; and
* Scalability: the world's most scalable security and compliance management for networks, data and endpoints across large-scale physical and virtual environments.
Additionally, ePolicy Orchestrator is the first and only platform that lets organisations centrally manage security and compliance products from multiple vendors and provides auditing features for physical and virtual systems on desktops, servers and across networks.
McAfee offers additional insight into securing virtual environments on its Web site at http://www.mcafee.com/virtualization.
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