RSA Conference 2009

VMware Extends, Refines Its Security Story

| Apr 27, 2009 | Enterprise Security | Show Update

| Analyst: Andrew Braunberg

Current Perspective: Positive Vendor Importance: Moderate Market Impact: Moderate

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Event Summary

April 23, 2009 -- VMware has announced that the VMware VMsafe APIs will ship with VMware vSphere 4 when the product becomes generally available later in the second quarter of 2009, with security vendors expected to deliver integrated solutions this year.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on the numerous security-related announcements coming out of the RSA Conference from both VMware and its security partners. VMware is determined to differentiate itself from its competitors in the server virtualization space by taking a robust approach to adding security functionality into the hypervisor. This differs significantly from the “keep it lean” approach of competitors, particularly Citrix.

• Vendor Importance: Moderate to VMware because as noted security is an important differentiator for the company and there were numerous important security announcements tied to the upcoming release of VSphere 4.0. VMware confirmed that the VMsafe security APIs would be available with the general availability of VSphere. The company also announced additional progress with security partners such as Cisco, RSA, and numerous pure plays.

• Market Impact: Moderate on the server virtualization market because security promises to remain an important point of differentiation among the leading vendors. Security is often cited as a leading concern among organizations that are embarking on data center consolidation projects but it is not at all clear that it is enough of a concern to actually slow down deployments or that VMware can yet credit its approach to security with garnering any additional market share. in the second quarter of 2009, with security vendors expected to deliver integrated solutions this year.

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Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

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