Building on the momentum created by the launch of Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 in October 2011, Kaspersky Lab today announced its latest security technology to ensure businesses will “Be Ready for What’s Next.” Kaspersky Security for Virtualization – built from the ground-up by Kaspersky Lab’s internal team of security experts – is focused on protecting evolving corporate IT infrastructures from malware and cybercriminals. Virtualization creates tremendous business and IT benefits for organizations globally, but if left unprotected, these platforms may become a weak link in the security chain for cybercriminals to exploit.
Kaspersky Security for Virtualization is delivered as a virtual security appliance that integrates with VMware vShield™ Endpoint to provide agent-less, anti-malware security based upon Kaspersky Lab’s advanced anti-malware engine. Developed from the same code-base as Kaspersky Lab’s award-winning line of endpoint security products, Kaspersky Security for Virtualization avoids the needless complexity and resource-drain associated with security programs that typically “bolt-on” acquired technology for virtual environments leaving customers with a management nightmare. With Kaspersky Lab, customers have a single, unified management platform for their virtual, physical and mobile environments.
In addition to plug-and-play compatibility with Kaspersky Lab’s own endpoint security offerings, Kaspersky Security for Virtualization seamlessly integrates with VMware vShield™ Endpoint Security, providing straightforward protection for virtual data centers, virtualized servers and desktops. Using VMware vShield™ Endpoint, the centrally managed Kaspersky Security for Virtualization automatically detects every virtual machine on the network, delivering files to the Kaspersky Lab client for real-time anti-malware scans. This integration with VMware vCenter™ means straightforward deployment, automatic protection of new virtual machines, mapping of both logical and physical computing structures, and automatic security updates, all managed by “a single pane of glass,” the Kaspersky Security Center administration console, and delivering increased consolidation ratios for customers.
The Kaspersky Lab Benefit – Unified Management of Virtual, Physical and Mobile Security
One of the greatest advantages of virtualization – IT resource efficiency – can suffer from sub-par security deployments, which apply physical security rules to virtual machines. By integrating with VMware vShield™ Endpoint, Kaspersky Security for Virtualization operates its anti-malware functions on a centralized virtual appliance, eliminating the need for duplicated resources on each virtual machine. By freeing up virtual machine resources, Kaspersky Security for Virtualization can optimize performance, reduce hardware costs and energy consumption, and provide detailed logging of security tasks to satisfy compliance auditing requirements.
Additionally, businesses have a mix of virtual, mobile and physical endpoints, but IT administrators don’t want to manage multiple security programs from multiple consoles. Kaspersky Security for Virtualization doesn’t force customers to create silos responsible for securing each platform. Instead, it feeds data directly to the Kaspersky Security Center. Kaspersky Lab’s agent-based security applications are also “virtualization-aware,” letting customers decide for themselves what method for securing each virtual machine best meets their security needs. IT administrators can also provide customized security policies to selected virtual machine groups, just as easily as with physical machines. This unified management of all computing environments provides an unmatched mix of straightforward administration combined with next-generation protection.
When this streamlined virtualization manager is combined with Kaspersky Lab’s award-winning anti-malware engine, the difference is immediately apparent. Our industry-leading anti-malware engine provides superior detection rates and heuristic analysis to detect and block even the most sophisticated polymorphic malware. Moreover, by having Kaspersky Security for Virtualization deployed on a virtualized host appliance, virtual machines are all protected by the same centralized malware database which is constantly updated as new threats emerge. This model ensures all virtual machines receive the same level of protection, regardless of when the machines were created, or if they have been offline for extended periods of time. There are no “Instant-On” gaps for virtual machines that haven’t been used for extended periods of time and no “AV Storms” that hog network resources while updating virtual machines.