Better protect apps and data with built-in security from VMware.

The problem with current approaches

There are three primary issues with many current security approaches.

1. Security is bolted on. Adding too many security products, agents and interfaces creates complexity and complicates administration. This patchwork collection of security solutions also increases risk as hackers exploit “seams” and possible misconfigurations to gain access. Meanwhile, deploying agents onto individual systems can sap system performance and leave systems vulnerable to takeover if agents are compromised or rendered inoperative.

2. Security is too threat-centric. An approach focused on responding to threats after they appear results in security that’s too reactive. This approach may employ solutions that lack sufficient awareness about the apps and data that need protection. As a result, organizations can only react and attempt to mitigate the damage—they cannot identify new attack vectors and prevent attacks before they occur.

3. Security is too siloed. Security products do not always work well together. When products aren’t integrated, policies and processes become siloed.

Security teams can become siloed as well—and that makes it extremely difficult to see the bigger picture. An InfoSec team might be focused on hardening endpoints and preventing attacks from affecting data center workloads. Meanwhile, a desktop services team might be concentrating on trust and authentication issues with user endpoints, and a network team might be working to protect the internal network. Lacking big-picture visibility and control, these teams often cannot collaborate to proactively address problems.

A new approach to security

A new approach to security can overcome these failings. This new approach employs security that is built in, context aware and unified.

Built in. You can strengthen security by leveraging the virtualization layer of your infrastructure. This layer is in the ideal place to provide deep visibility into apps and data. And it can’t be compromised easily from within an app or operating system process.

Tapping into the capabilities of existing infrastructure also helps reduce complexity. By capitalizing on the virtualization layer, you can minimize the number of products, agents and interfaces required for managing security. Your administrators can also simplify policy management, creating a single policy that spans on-premises, private cloud and public cloud environments to edge environments, mobile devices and more.

Context aware. Security solutions are most effective when they are informed by the context of what they’re trying to protect. Beyond identifying specific threats, these solutions must have visibility into apps and workloads. And they must understand what those apps and workloads are supposed to be doing. Context-aware security gives them that visibility and the context that should be the basis of security policies implemented across environments.

Unified. A new approach to security should support integrated workflows. The right tools can help you avoid siloed processes and eliminate security gaps. They also facilitate collaboration and information sharing among previously siloed teams.

Implementing a new security approach with VMware

By providing solutions for modern IT, VMware is in a unique position to address security challenges. VMware security solutions turn points of vulnerability into points of security control.

Endpoint. VMware offers a cloud-native endpoint protection platform, delivered as a SaaS offering, that prevents, detects and responds to advanced attacks. Using this cloud-native solution helps reduce the impact on end-user devices and decrease management overhead associated with legacy antivirus solutions.

Workload. Infrastructure teams need to focus on the most high-risk vulnerabilities and common exploits across their environments. VMware offers a SaaS-based security solution purpose-built for workloads that combines prioritized vulnerability reporting and foundational workload hardening with industry-leading prevention, detection and response capabilities. It protects workloads running in virtualized, private and hybrid cloud environments.

Network. VMware network security solutions protect apps and data across multi-cloud environments by employing network security policies specific to every app and workload. A purpose-built internal firewall helps secure and inspect east-west traffic with consistent policy and fine-grain control. You can also apply secure access no matter where your users, apps and devices are located.

Cloud. VMware cloud workload security solutions can help you strengthen your cloud security and compliance posture with real-time detection and response capabilities for multiple public cloud providers. These solutions help administrators visualize and correlate risks due to misconfigurations, threats and resource relationships.

Identity. As you empower your distributed workforce, enabling remote employees to access enterprise apps and resources, you need to maintain tight security. VMware digital workspaces incorporate multi-factor authentication, conditional access and single sign-on (SSO) capabilities to confirm user identities without hindering productivity. The secure access service edge (SASE) platform from VMware, offered as a VMware Cross-Cloud service, uses VMware Secure Access to ensure only trusted devices and users can access apps.

Moving forward, more securely

Security threats are unlikely to diminish any time soon. A new approach to security can help you overcome some of the deficits of more traditional approaches. By leveraging your digital foundation built on VMware, you can implement built-in security quickly, using familiar tools. Ultimately, you’ll be better protected against growing threats—so you can stay focused on advancing innovation. ▪