Catbird, the pioneer in leading-edge security and compliance solutions for virtual and cloud data centers, today announced the immediate availability of vCompliance™, the industry’s first comprehensive automated monitoring and enforcement solution that ensures security and regulatory compliance for virtualized and cloud-based data centers. Based on Catbird’s vSecurity® platform, vCompliance’s real-time continuous monitoring service instantly detects compliance violations and quarantines offending assets to ensure ongoing compliance with leading regulatory standards, such as DIACAP, SOX, HIPAA and PCI.
With the increasing presence of VMware virtualization in regulated industries such as financial services, government, retail and healthcare, comes the attendant need to ensure that these deployments meet or exceed existing compliance requirements. vCompliance is designed specifically for these environments. It unites an automated, 24x7, network monitoring service with information from the hypervisor, including a full vulnerability management solution and network access control. These critical services are mandated by regulatory specifications. Catbird vCompliance provides numerous controls required by the leading regulatory standards organizations and the most common security frameworks.
“Maintaining compliance is the #1 concern facing security officers at enterprises moving to virtualized data centers,” said Edmundo Costa, Catbird COO. “Most regulatory bodies are beginning to update their specs to incorporate virtualization, and the absence of a single authoritative resource to guide IT security and operations professionals in achieving compliance has led to spotty enforcement and glaring gaps. vCompliance fills this void to ensure worry-free ongoing compliance, complete with automatic updates to the latest standards.”
“Virtualization is becoming increasingly present in datacenters where compliance is non-negotiable,” said Shekar Ayyar, vice president of infrastructure alliances, VMware. “To meet this growing demand, VMware works with partners such as Catbird to enable complementary solutions that take advantage of VMware virtualization to ensure compliance in a simplified, cost-effective yet more comprehensive way — providing customers with even better compliance than they could achieve with purely physical infrastructure.”
Finally, Compliance that Enhances Virtualization’s Appeal
Catbird vCompliance can actually make virtualized assets more compliant than physical, providing yet another incentive for businesses to move to cloud-based and virtualized environments, in addition to the inherent cost savings and provisioning ease. Designed for deployment as a cloud-based service, vCompliance provides a comprehensive and integrated virtualized compliance product, including:
Continuous and automated audit and enforcement to meet the requirements of PCI, HIPAA, SOX, DIACAP, etc.
Policy driven automated controls for auditing, inventory management, configuration management, change management, access control, vulnerability management, and incident response
Vulnerability scanning from inside the virtual subnets, with 100% visibility of all virtual machines
Automated enforcement and quarantine of out of compliance assets
Detailed statistics on compliance status for each individual asset, zone, virtual host or physical host
Automated, customizable reports (per compliance specification, per asset or per zone) geared for the appropriate organizational audience (management, operations, etc.) that provide a quick overview or deep-dive to help resolve compliance issues, ease remediation and restore full compliance
Web-based management
Integrated Compliance Management & Reporting Through VMware vSphere™ 4 and VMware vCenter™ Product Family
Via Catbird’s integrated security control console, Catbird vCompliance provides a compliance view of virtual systems in the vSphere management application. This integration brings real-time visibility and management of virtual and cloud security to a single web-based management interface, accessible from anywhere. The drag-and-drop dashboard supports automated discovery and hyperlink drill-down for intuitive management and ease of use. The multi-tenant portal provides more flexible administration options to meet the needs of multi-departmental organizations and service providers.
Seamlessly incorporated into the VMware vSphere™ 4 and VMware vCenter™ management workflow, VMware administrators can instantly monitor system compliance against standard or customized policies defined by corporate security or governance. Continuous status updates are delivered to the VMware vCenter console by “Catbirds” – stateless, non-invasive appliances deployed on the virtual subnets which act as the eyes and ears of the virtual environment.
In the event of an attempted policy violation, designated personnel are instantly alerted via an array of mechanisms and the offending activity blocked -- preventing a compromise of the integrity and compliance of the system. Detailed reporting, accessible directly from the console, provides automated event logs to ease troubleshooting and remediation.
Superbly Compatible for Exceptional Performance, Reliability
vCompliance is specifically designed to enhance overall data center performance with a minimal footprint and a flexible, fully XML and Web-services based architecture that allows for seamless integration with 3rd party reporting tools, trouble-ticketing and other enterprise-class services in a heterogeneous environment. In addition, Catbird is integrated with McAfee’s ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) management console, providing customers with a single administrative interface for both virtual and physical security, and both network and end-point security.
"Our government and enterprise clients face regulatory pressure everyday from external and internal auditors," noted Adnan Hindi, COO of Catbird partner Palladian Technology. "With Catbird vCompliance, these customers can seamlessly deploy virtualization technology without compromising any of their established policies or 3rd party regulations, enabling a quick and easy shift to their virtualized data centers. We haven't seen any other product in the market with the depth and breadth of coverage that Catbird has."
“Catbird’s underlying technology is the most dependable and respected in the industry, relied on by hundreds of customers across some of the country’s largest Managed Security Services Providers to provide security and compliance for their customers,” Costa said. “Given the high cost of audits and financial damage that can result from a breach, ensuring ongoing compliance with an easy-to-deploy mechanism such as vCompliance can deliver a considerable ROI, along with peace of mind.”
Friday, September 4, 2009
Hardware Server Sales Slump as IT Pros Capitalize on Current Capacity and Add Virtualization and Consolidation to Get Through 2009 – New Research From
TheInfoPro, an independent research company for the IT industry, today released new real-time data from its pending Server Study (final results due in October, Q3 2009) indicating that more than 50% of new servers being installed in 2009 will host virtualization, and future progressive growth indicates 80% by 2012.
Announced at VMworld 2009, TheInfoPro’s Server Study has conducted interviews with 195 IT pros wherein initial spending data indicates that 22% expect increases this year in server spending, but an additional 34% of the group indicates they’ll experience decreases. The IT pros range from Fortune 1000 (F1000) organizations to midsize enterprises (MSEs) in North America and Europe, and the interviews were completed between June and August 2009.
TheInfoPro Server Study also captures data about the rise of desktop virtualization, offers highlights on spending in each area of server management by vendor, and gives an in-depth look at VMware’s benefits and challenges in the current IT marketplace. For more information, visit TheInfoPro at booth #1322 or call the contact number below for a real-time briefing.
Hardware vs. Software Spending
TheInfoPro’s network of IT pros stated that virtualization and consolidation is a critical lifeline to optimizing the current capacity of their existing physical servers. Virtualization deployments will continue to expand in the coming months, with 70% of the respondents citing it as critical to meeting their business objectives. Though hardware spending continues to show little growth, more than 50% of respondents do expect to resume hardware acquisition once the economy stabilizes. For now, Hewlett-Packard is positioned as a strong vendor in future choice of spending and faces the lowest vulnerability to customer switching when compared to competing vendors.
In software, despite the revenue-dampening effect of enterprise licensing, Microsoft remained steady in its category, with 22% of respondents indicating they would spend more throughout the remainder of 2009. VMware and Red Hat remain strong in their respective categories, with 41% and 30% spending more in 2009, respectively.
“While virtualization does show continued growth in 2009, the depth of this penetration will really depend upon the ability to manage and deploy applications in these complex environments,” said Bob Gill, TheInfoPro’s Managing Director of Server Research. “The 2010 outlook and beyond are good indicators that even as IT budgets continue to rise, hardware spending will be looked at differently given the options of virtualization and consolidation.”
Announced at VMworld 2009, TheInfoPro’s Server Study has conducted interviews with 195 IT pros wherein initial spending data indicates that 22% expect increases this year in server spending, but an additional 34% of the group indicates they’ll experience decreases. The IT pros range from Fortune 1000 (F1000) organizations to midsize enterprises (MSEs) in North America and Europe, and the interviews were completed between June and August 2009.
TheInfoPro Server Study also captures data about the rise of desktop virtualization, offers highlights on spending in each area of server management by vendor, and gives an in-depth look at VMware’s benefits and challenges in the current IT marketplace. For more information, visit TheInfoPro at booth #1322 or call the contact number below for a real-time briefing.
Hardware vs. Software Spending
TheInfoPro’s network of IT pros stated that virtualization and consolidation is a critical lifeline to optimizing the current capacity of their existing physical servers. Virtualization deployments will continue to expand in the coming months, with 70% of the respondents citing it as critical to meeting their business objectives. Though hardware spending continues to show little growth, more than 50% of respondents do expect to resume hardware acquisition once the economy stabilizes. For now, Hewlett-Packard is positioned as a strong vendor in future choice of spending and faces the lowest vulnerability to customer switching when compared to competing vendors.
In software, despite the revenue-dampening effect of enterprise licensing, Microsoft remained steady in its category, with 22% of respondents indicating they would spend more throughout the remainder of 2009. VMware and Red Hat remain strong in their respective categories, with 41% and 30% spending more in 2009, respectively.
“While virtualization does show continued growth in 2009, the depth of this penetration will really depend upon the ability to manage and deploy applications in these complex environments,” said Bob Gill, TheInfoPro’s Managing Director of Server Research. “The 2010 outlook and beyond are good indicators that even as IT budgets continue to rise, hardware spending will be looked at differently given the options of virtualization and consolidation.”
Virtustream Secures $25 Million Equity Financing
Virtustream, Inc. a privately held infrastructure services firm, today announced the completion of new equity financing with total commitments of $25 million led by Virginia based Columbia Capital and Miami based Blue Lagoon Capital.
Virtustream is an infrastructure services firm committed to helping clients actualize the enterprise cloud by providing strategy, integration and managed services leveraging deep virtualization experience, and its own proprietary platform. The infusion of funding is part of Virtustream’s growth strategy and will be used to continue accelerating its platform development, build international presence and expand domain expertise.
“Columbia Capital is excited to work with this team of experienced virtualization and enterprise transformation professionals,” said Patrick Hendy, Partner at Columbia Capital. “We are very impressed with Virtustream’s proven management team and feel that they are well positioned to take the lead in the enterprise cloud computing space.”
“Virtustream has deep virtualization experience, breadth & depth of highly scalable services, strategic alliances with key hardware and software partners as well as unique business and pricing models making them a compelling alternative to larger firms,” said Rodney Rogers, CEO of Blue Lagoon Capital.
Virtustream also recently completed the acquisition of VirtualizeIT, the premier European consultancy practice dedicated to the advancement and adoption of virtualization technologies, and Brigh Technologies (Brigh), the leading North American provider for the design and deployment of custom solutions in the virtualization space. The union brings together pioneers in enterprise computing including being one of the first VMware professional services partners in North America and the 2008 VMware EMEA Partner of the Year. The stockholders of both acquired companies will have an equity interest in Virtustream, and all employees will continue their employment with Virtustream.
“Virtustream’s strategy is to fold VirtualizeIT and Brigh’s recognized virtualization services leadership into our existing capabilities to continue to build out our proprietary platform,” said Kevin Reid, CEO of Virtustream. “The platform will harness years of experience gained from thousands of successful physical to virtual transformations performed by both entities, leveraging the tools and historical data collected from those environments.”
“VirtualizeIT and Brigh’s clients recognize the complexity of being efficient in a virtualized environment and we now have the collaborative ability to address additional requirements. Typically, when companies undergo some transformation exercise to move from a physical to a virtual world they traditionally see annual savings ranging from 30 to 50%. By adding the Infrastructure Services that Virtustream provides to manage that platform, our clients can potentially yield an additional 10 to 20% benefit. Our Infrastructure as a Service offering delivers unique, industry leading resource level Service Level Agreements,” added Reid.
As a silver sponsor, Virtustream will be showcasing their solutions in booth #2314 at the VMworld 2009 exhibition in San Francisco at The Moscone Center from August 31 through September 3. Key leadership will be available to brief media and analysts on the firm’s differentiators in the enterprise cloud space.
Virtustream is an infrastructure services firm committed to helping clients actualize the enterprise cloud by providing strategy, integration and managed services leveraging deep virtualization experience, and its own proprietary platform. The infusion of funding is part of Virtustream’s growth strategy and will be used to continue accelerating its platform development, build international presence and expand domain expertise.
“Columbia Capital is excited to work with this team of experienced virtualization and enterprise transformation professionals,” said Patrick Hendy, Partner at Columbia Capital. “We are very impressed with Virtustream’s proven management team and feel that they are well positioned to take the lead in the enterprise cloud computing space.”
“Virtustream has deep virtualization experience, breadth & depth of highly scalable services, strategic alliances with key hardware and software partners as well as unique business and pricing models making them a compelling alternative to larger firms,” said Rodney Rogers, CEO of Blue Lagoon Capital.
Virtustream also recently completed the acquisition of VirtualizeIT, the premier European consultancy practice dedicated to the advancement and adoption of virtualization technologies, and Brigh Technologies (Brigh), the leading North American provider for the design and deployment of custom solutions in the virtualization space. The union brings together pioneers in enterprise computing including being one of the first VMware professional services partners in North America and the 2008 VMware EMEA Partner of the Year. The stockholders of both acquired companies will have an equity interest in Virtustream, and all employees will continue their employment with Virtustream.
“Virtustream’s strategy is to fold VirtualizeIT and Brigh’s recognized virtualization services leadership into our existing capabilities to continue to build out our proprietary platform,” said Kevin Reid, CEO of Virtustream. “The platform will harness years of experience gained from thousands of successful physical to virtual transformations performed by both entities, leveraging the tools and historical data collected from those environments.”
“VirtualizeIT and Brigh’s clients recognize the complexity of being efficient in a virtualized environment and we now have the collaborative ability to address additional requirements. Typically, when companies undergo some transformation exercise to move from a physical to a virtual world they traditionally see annual savings ranging from 30 to 50%. By adding the Infrastructure Services that Virtustream provides to manage that platform, our clients can potentially yield an additional 10 to 20% benefit. Our Infrastructure as a Service offering delivers unique, industry leading resource level Service Level Agreements,” added Reid.
As a silver sponsor, Virtustream will be showcasing their solutions in booth #2314 at the VMworld 2009 exhibition in San Francisco at The Moscone Center from August 31 through September 3. Key leadership will be available to brief media and analysts on the firm’s differentiators in the enterprise cloud space.
Vizioncore Offers vConverter SC As Freeware
Vizioncore Inc., the market leader in virtualization data protection and management solutions, today announced that vConverter SC (Server Consolidation) will now be available for free. Customers may use the tool to accelerate towards a virtualized environment, making the most of maintenance windows and reducing downtime on current physical machines.
vConverter SC offers an intuitive GUI to enable rapid simultaneous conversions of single or multiple servers without disruption to the source system. By combining cutting-edge disk and networking technology with extensive automation of pre- and post-conversion tasks, it boasts the ability to successfully migrate more servers per conversion window, saving valuable maintenance time. Furthermore the product is compatible with hypervisors from leading vendors such as VMware, Microsoft and Citrix, making it the perfect fit for almost every environment.
The move continues the precedent set at VMworld Europe earlier this year with the launch of the Virtualization EcoShell Initiative (VESI), another free offering from Vizioncore to the virtualization community. In providing these tools and services, the company is cementing its intention of offering a selection of the Vizioncore product portfolio for free, thereby widening adoption of virtualization across the market.
“We’re excited by the prospect of taking Vizioncore to a wider audience and by lowering the barriers to adoption,” said Devang Kothari, Product Manager for vConverter, Vizioncore. “We hope that end users looking to take the first steps into managing their virtualized estates will benefit from seeing how Vizioncore products help overcome their pain points and then be encouraged to deploy our comprehensive suite of virtualization management products.”
vConverter SC can be downloaded for free here. At VMworld 2009, visitors are invited see vConverter SC in action alongside other Vizioncore offerings at booth #1402.
vConverter SC offers an intuitive GUI to enable rapid simultaneous conversions of single or multiple servers without disruption to the source system. By combining cutting-edge disk and networking technology with extensive automation of pre- and post-conversion tasks, it boasts the ability to successfully migrate more servers per conversion window, saving valuable maintenance time. Furthermore the product is compatible with hypervisors from leading vendors such as VMware, Microsoft and Citrix, making it the perfect fit for almost every environment.
The move continues the precedent set at VMworld Europe earlier this year with the launch of the Virtualization EcoShell Initiative (VESI), another free offering from Vizioncore to the virtualization community. In providing these tools and services, the company is cementing its intention of offering a selection of the Vizioncore product portfolio for free, thereby widening adoption of virtualization across the market.
“We’re excited by the prospect of taking Vizioncore to a wider audience and by lowering the barriers to adoption,” said Devang Kothari, Product Manager for vConverter, Vizioncore. “We hope that end users looking to take the first steps into managing their virtualized estates will benefit from seeing how Vizioncore products help overcome their pain points and then be encouraged to deploy our comprehensive suite of virtualization management products.”
vConverter SC can be downloaded for free here. At VMworld 2009, visitors are invited see vConverter SC in action alongside other Vizioncore offerings at booth #1402.
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