New VMware VMsafe™ Technology Allows the Virtual Datacenter to Be More Secure Than Physical Environments

Twenty Industry-Leading Security Vendors, Including CheckPoint, McAfee and Symantec, Endorse VMsafe Technology and Announce Plans to Build Interoperable Security Solutions

Cannes, FRANCE, February 27, 2008 – VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, today announced new security technology called VMware VMsafe™, http://www.vmware.com/go/vmsafe, that protects applications running in virtual machines in ways previously not possible in physical environments.

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Wow, what an announcement today for security vendors looking to sell their wares to a growing base of customers taking advantage of virtualization and a great way for VMWare to help its customers secure networks created by VMWare!

This announcement from VMWare does highlight that VMWare is serious about helping their customers address security challenges. What is still to be determined however, is what this really means to customers. There were 20 security companies announced in the partnership and little information about what security problem each company is solving. I guess we should expect to see 20 press releases from these individual security companies in the near future.

My educated guess though, is that most security vendors will just be offering their existing security products that are in many cases physical firewalls, anti-virus, UTM, etc. The real value will be from solutions that bring unique value to the virtual environment vs. network designs that dictate routing traffic out of the Virtual Environment to a physical security appliance and back in. The other question is ; will the software vendors just be installing their software on the operating systems of Virtual Machines vs. Physical Machines?

Are there any real hooks being offered today that connect to VMWare and take advantage of these API's or are these things yet to come? My educated guess is that these are still things yet to come from the majority of the vendors in the program.

I've had the privileged of reading the API documents as the CTO of Montego Networks which is also part of the VMSafe program that was just announced and am very excited about the future possibilities of the program.

I'm excited to see the space finally get its due attention and am confident that the program will give birth to many new ideas and products that help solve the many security challenges introduced by virtualization.