PacketMotion, a user activity management (UAM) provider, is now offering PacketSentry Virtual Probe, a product that extends PacketMotion’s security to virtual and cloud environments. The Virtual Probe secures data in VMware clusters by delivering PacketSentry as a guest virtual machine (VM) that does not require the administrator’s knowledge of IP addresses, with minimal resource impact. Once within the VMware clusters, PacketSentry monitors applications such as databases, fileshares, web applications, and document management, plus more.
According to Gartner, the top virtual security issue is the lack of visibility and controls on internal VM-to-VM communications, which can result in unauthorized communication between VMs. It can also lead to mixing of trust levels within a virtual host, and failure to detect suspicious access of key information assets, possibly resulting in an inability to satisfy compliance regulations, such as PCI, HIPAA, and SOX.
There are several security features within the virtual appliance, including:
- Implementing multiple controls in a single application
- Running as a guest VM, consuming three to five percent of the host’s CPU
- Reacting to transaction patterns without the need to know specific IP addresse
- Pricing based on number of VMs monitored, not the VMware deployment architecture
- Automating deployment of identity-based policy in the virtual data center
The PacketSentry Virtual Probe gives security and network teams a product for audit and control in the virtual data center. Security teams can monitor virtual server administration activity and policy enforcement within the virtual servers, and can enforce or change policies on their own.
