Packetmotion Unveils Virtual Solution to Secure, Audit VM-to-VM Communications
New PacketSentry Virtual Probe appliance enables visibility and control across VMware data centers without impacting flexibility, benefits of virtual environments.
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PacketMotion, a user activity management (UAM) solutions provider, has released PacketSentry Virtual Probe, which extends PacketMotion’s comprehensive security solution to virtual and cloud environments. The PacketSentry Virtual Probe monitors and secures access to sensitive data in VMware clusters by delivering PacketSentry’s application and identity-aware solution as a guest VM that does not require an administrator’s knowledge of IP addresses and with minimal resource impact. Applications monitored include databases, file shares, Web applications, and document management.
Lack of visibility and control within a virtual cluster can result in unauthorized communication between VMs, mixing of trust levels within a virtual host, and failure to detect suspicious access of key information assets. This may also result in the inability to satisfy internal audits and compliance regulations, including PCI, HIPAA, and SOX.
The PacketSentry Virtual Probe solution dramatically changes the security capability in the virtual environment. It delivers a low-overhead virtual appliance that:
- Implements multiple controls in a single application
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Runs as a guest VM that consumes just three to five percent of the host’s CPU
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Reacts to transaction patterns without the need to know specific IP addresses
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Is priced based on number of VMs monitored, independent of VMware deployment architecture
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Automates deployment of identity-based policy in the virtual data center
The PacketSentry Virtual Probe was built as an easy-to-install and workload-efficient addition to the virtual environment. Because the Virtual Probe consumes little server CPU, memory, and I/O resources, it can be deployed across servers and blades in the virtual data center for complete data protection. PacketSentry’s advanced decode and application analytics provide an unparalleled tool for auditing and controlling application and virtual network behavior.
The PacketSentry Virtual Probe supports separation of duties by giving security and network teams -- which are responsible for meeting compliance regulations and protecting intellectual property -- a solution for audit and control in the virtual data center, an area typically owned by server teams. Now, security teams can monitor virtual server administration activity and policy enforcement within the virtual servers, and can enforce or change policies on their own.
Availability and Pricing
The PacketSentry Virtual Probe supports VMware vSphere version 4.0 and greater, ESX version 3.5 and greater, and is available now from PacketMotion’s channel partners. The Virtual Probe is priced at $4,995 for a five pack of monitored servers/VMs and $21,995 for a 25 pack. Support for other hypervisors will be available in a future release.
Additional information is available at www.packetmotion.com.