LAS VEGAS- Kaspersky Lab launched its first virtualization security solution this week during VMware’s Partner Exchange event.
Kaspersky Security for Virtualization is an appliance that directly integrates with VMware’s vShield Endpoint for agentless anti-malware protection. End customers will be able to manage their physical, virtual and mobile environments through a single administrative interface, Kaspersky’s Security Centre.
The agentless approach also means no additional overhead costs, said Gary Mullen, senior director of product management with Kaspersky.
“Our strategy is to really build product sets that bring complex technologies that heretofore only the large, Fortune 500 companies have been able to implement,” Mullen said. This new offering is ideal for companies that want to a set and forget approach, but is also scalable to large organizations, he said.
Using vShield Endpoint, Kaspersky’s offering will automatically detect every virtual machine on the network and deliver files for real-time anti-malware scans. IT administrators can also implement customized security policies to selected VM groups the same way as they would with physical machines.
VMware itself will be making more of a push in the SMB market this year, to tackle the multi-billion dollar cloud opportunity in the coming few years. “That’s not really a change for us because that’s where we grew up,” Mullen said, since Kaspersky has always sold to the SMB market.
“The SMB market, particularly for technologies like virtualization, has really not had a lot of focus because one, the technology’s been very expensive, and two it’s been very complex,” Mullen said. “Vendors like us now are trying to take that technology and make it both affordable and implementable by the SMB customers.”
Kaspersky’s new offering will be available through its channel partners in mid-April.