RAPID GROWTH OF VIRTUALIZATION IN PH SETS
OFF KASPERSKY LAB’S NEW SECURITY PLATFORM
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| Suk Ling Gun, Kaspersky Lab’s corporate
sales director for Asia Pacific as she discussed the
features of Kaspersky Security for Virtualization to members
of the IT media in a press briefing in Makati City recently. (photo from Kaspersky Lab) |
Makati, Philippines-- Recognizing the need to protect the growing numbers of companies using virtualized networks, Kaspersky Lab, a leading secure content and threat management solutions developer, recently launched its latest security technology in the Philippines to ensure businesses will “Be Ready for What’s Next.”
In a survey conducted to 100 companies by Kaspersky Lab’s exclusive distributor iSecure Networks, it showed that the IT virtualization is gaining ground in the Philippines with the 63 percent of the respondents were either in the process of implementing or were already implementing virtualized environments.
The survey on IT virtualization and security thoughts, which targeted Philippine corporations also reveals how companies are reacting to threats and what they are doing to address these problems.
Consequently, 87 percent of the companies surveyed said they were not satisfied with existing security applications being offered in virtualized environments. To address these issues, Kaspersky Security for Virtualization is delivered as a virtual security appliance that integrates with VMware vShield™ Endpoint to provide agent-less, anti-malware security based upon Kaspersky Lab’s advanced anti-malware engine.
Developed from the same code-base as Kaspersky Lab’s award-winning line of endpoint security products, Kaspersky Security for Virtualization avoids the needless complexity and resource-drain associated with security programs that typically “bolt-on” acquired technology for virtual environments. With Kaspersky Lab, customers have a single, unified management platform for their virtual, physical and mobile environments.
KSV also has advanced anti-malware engine that provides superior detection and effective malware remediation. Understanding that companies implement virtualization to reach efficiency, KSV delivers protection in an agent-less form with a centralized anti-malware engine and signature database. This ensures that there is no redundancy or duplication of engine and database.
Suk Ling Gun, Kaspersky Lab’s director of corporate sales for Asia Pacific, said that despite a seemingly high level of familiarity of Filipino companies on IT virtualization, expectations on virtualized network security are just as equally significant. This can be attributed to increased awareness of vulnerabilities on private networks that could be exploited by cybercriminals.
But even as security remains a concern among these companies, 72 percent of the respondents expressed that they will still implement a form of virtualization in the next 12 months.
With expenses being the utmost reason for IT virtualization deployment, close to 50 percent of the surveyed firms said they have done virtualization on their mail and web servers, with 17 percent on storage servers.
Aside from cost, security is also a major consideration among companies that were concerned that their IT infrastructure could be subject to hacking and malicious software. But the survey, conducted in April this year, also showed a surprisingly small number of companies (31 percent) have applied security applications on their virtualized network.
“Businesses are seemingly aware of threats that might come when they transition to virtualization and that is why they look at security quite consciously. This just means that for companies, it is not just about cost savings and long-term reliability, but also the security that can be afforded to their infrastructure,” said Gun.
She added that among the factors that could also affect deployment of security in a virtualized environment is the complexity of the security platform itself; as companies attempt to reduce time management of their IT infrastructure they are also hoping that their security applications would not impede their operations.
“Time is an important aspect for businesses and they do not want to spend too much time in protecting their virtualized environments. They want a security application that would protect them from all types of threats without costing their IT managers time to respond,” Gun said.
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About Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab is the world’s largest privately held vendor of endpoint protection solutions. The company is ranked among the world’s top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users*. Throughout its 15-year history Kaspersky Lab has remained an innovator in IT security and provides effective digital security solutions for consumers, SMBs and Enterprises. The company currently operates in almost 200 countries and territories across the globe, providing protection for over 300 million users worldwide. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.
*The company was rated fourth in the IDC rating Worldwide Endpoint Security Revenue by Vendor, 2010. The rating was published in the IDC report Worldwide IT Security Products 2011-2015 Forecast and 2010 Vendor Shares – December 2011. The report ranked software vendors according to earnings from sales of endpoint security solutions in 2010.
