Securing Virtualized Environments

Organizations moving their physical server infrastructure onto virtual platforms for cost savings are finding their virtual hosts and guests are now open to new security and non-compliance risks. Workloads shifted to virtualized platforms to realize operational cost efficiencies are done so at potentially high security costs if proper security policies and tools are not established prior to implementation.

Administrative access to the Hypervisor/VMM layer and the administrative tools used to access these layers must be tightly controlled to maintain a strong security posture. When multiple resources with many different levels of privileged access are consolidated onto a single physical server without sufficient workflow protocol, separation of duties for network and security controls could be compromised and security policies circumvented.

PowerBroker ESX Datacenter Virtualization

PowerBroker ESX Datacenter Virtualization package includes centrally managed PowerBroker licenses for 10 ESX Hypervisors and 100 Guest VMs allowing customers to ensure secure privileged access and compliance for virtual infrastructures in their VMware powered datacenters. Undermanaged privileges on the ESX hypervisor can be exploited to gain undetected access to highly sensitive data on guest VMs or even bring down the entire virtual infrastructure. The PowerBroker ESX Datacenter Virtualization package protects against such risk and strengthens the security and compliance posture of virtualized datacenters running VMware. This solution provides a cost effective method that enables a secure and compliant migration of enterprise workloads to VMware powered datacenters.

Key PowerBroker ESX Datacenter Virtualization features:
• Granular policy-driven control for who can access which infrastructure elements from specific locations and what they can do on both the ESX hypervisor and guest VMs. These controls are essential for security and for support of compliance mandates and security standards like SOX, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, FISMA, ISO 27001 and COBIT.
• Two-click entitlement reports as well as a programmatic role-constrain mechanism for segregation of duties to support compliance.
• Detailed logging and reporting capabilities down to indelible secure keystroke logs for the entire virtual infrastructures to ensure quick and flexible audit support and forensic analysis.
• A special aggressively discounted packaged price for 10 ESX servers and 100 Guest VMs

PowerBroker for Virtualization provides a unified solution to centrally address risks from undermanaged privileges in virtualized datacenter environments and privileged access tools to mitigate security risks and meet compliance requirements so organizations can adopt virtualization with confidence.

Deploying separate point solutions for privileged identity management on guest operating systems and hypervisors is sub-optimal, as it makes it very difficult to enforce consistent policies across the virtual environment. A solution that bridges that gap and provides a blend of guest and host hypervisor control capabilities as well as virtual platform-specific cost-effective deployment capabilities will ensure secure datacenter virtualization. In a secure and compliant environment, privileged access to virtual resources are managed to give them access to only what they need to do their job.

PowerBroker for Virtualization provides a cost-effective solution for consistent granular privilege identity management across guest operating systems as well as hypervisor hosts, through a single centralized management console.

Granular delegation of administrative privileges with detailed and flexible reporting including keystroke logging of administrative actions on virtual guests and host hypervisors provides a secure and compliant virtualized datacenter environment. PowerBroker for Virtualization provides two-click entitlement reports, as well as a programmatic role-constrain mechanisms to ensure segregation of duties. PowerBroker for Virtualization provides a unified solution to centrally address risks from undermanaged privileges in virtualized datacenter environments.

PowerBroker for Virtualization provides a unified solution to centrally address risks from undermanaged privileges in virtualized datacenter environments and privileged access tools to mitigate security risks and meet compliance requirements so organizations can adopt virtualization with confidence.

Key benefits of PowerBroker for Virtualization:
• Granular delegation of administrative privileges
• Detailed and flexible reporting including keystroke logging of admin activities
• Two-click entitlement reports
• Programmable role-constrain mechanisms for segregation of duties
• Secures virtual guest and host hypervisors
• Supports VMware ESX, Solaris Zones, AIX WPAR, and IBM z/VM

PowerBroker for Virtualization

"Most virtualized workloads are being deployed insecurely, introducing significant organizational risk. Installation of x86 virtualization platforms should be treated as one of the most critical software layers in data centers, but tools and processes are relatively immature and staff, resellers and consultants are still learning. Because of the critical support the hypervisor/VMM layer provides, administrative access to this layer must be tightly controlled."
Neil MacDonald, vice president and Gartner fellow