Trend says security for virtual machines

Peter Dinham
Sunday, 19 July 2009 13:20

Business IT - Security

Virtual machines get new security protection with Trend Micro expanding its overall virtualisation security portfolio with the introduction of a content security solution to protect VMware ESX/ESXi environments.

Announcing the new release, Trend Micro says it comes at a time when analysts expect the virtualisation industry to hit over $7 billion over the next four years as the tough world economic situation drives companies globally to adopt more cost-effective measures and to pursue greater efficiencies.

Trend Micro says its core protection for virtual machines is designed to secure VMware virtual machines, both active and dormant, “comprehensively and efficiently," adding that the product leverages the VMsafe APIs from VMware to offer “layered protection through the use of dedicated scanning VMs coordinated with real-time agents within the VM.”

However, according to Trend Micro, while server virtualisation increases efficiency in the data centre, it also challenges the security of the IT environment, with existing content security solutions imported from the physical world typically leaving security gaps when deployed in virtual environments.

“For example, dormant or offline virtual machines can get infected even while dormant, yet are unable to protect themselves with a virus scan agent and signature updates. Similarly, resource-intensive security operations such as scheduled full system scans can significantly degrade the performance of the host and render the security ineffective, especially when initiated concurrently on multiple virtual machines.”

Trend Micro maintains that its core protection for virtual machines addresses these issues and “enables enterprises to maximise the economic benefits of virtualisation without compromising the security of their data centre.”

Terence Snijtsheuvel, a senior consultant at Compugen, one of Canada's largest privately owned and operated IT services providers and PC systems integrators, says his company was interested to try out Trend Micro core protection for virtual machines “since most security solutions are focused on the operating system software and this was the first solution we found for addressing the unique aspects of virtual machines."

"To protect virtual environments, the main challenge is to deal with the many virtual machines that are dormant at any point in time. Even when not in use, virtual machines can be attacked and are especially vulnerable since traditional scans are not being done and pattern files are not being updated while they are dormant.

"With core protection for virtual Machines, Trend Micro aims to offer a security solution that protects active and dormant virtual machines and therefore the entire infrastructure."

According to Trend Micro, its new core protection for virtual machines, is optimised for virtualisation and, it maintains, closes the security gaps unique to virtualised environments. It also says the new product secures dormant and active virtual machines by providing scanning and pattern updates from a separate scanning virtual machine, and “improves the performance profile of virtual servers.”