Kaspersky Lab announced "a major update" to its dedicated security product for data centers, Kaspersky Security for Virtualization Light Agent, that adds Linux support, expanding on the list of virtualization platforms and operating systems already supported.
The company said, "The solution now delivers virtualization-native security to any server, regardless of the operating system it runs — in both Agentless and Light Agent modes."
"Windows-only and Linux-only data centers are rare, with the majority mixing the two operating systems," the company said in its announcement, adding, "This poses challenges for managing security across data center infrastructure. Some of the barriers that businesses face include the costs, time and human resources needed to install, configure and orchestrate different solutions for different platforms and operating systems. To help address these challenges, Kaspersky Lab is offering a unified approach to securing virtual environments."
The Light Agent now provides virtual machines (VMs) built on Linux, providing all of the benefits of multilayered security available for Windows, including anti-malware scanning, memory and processes protection, device, web and mail controls with proactive detection, exploit prevention and anti-cryptor technology that protects virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) from ransomware, Kaspersky said. "Unlike traditional agent-based solutions, Kaspersky Security for Virtualization Light Agent is designed to provide a high level of protection while minimizing the impact on the systems’ performance. It does this by offloading resource-heavy anti-malware scans from individual VMs to a dedicated Security VM."
The cybersecurity firm said, "Linux OS is also supported in the Agentless version of the solution, along with the latest virtualization platforms, like VMware vSphere 6.5 and VMware NSX 6.2 & 6.3. The list of supported platforms and operating systems also now covers the most recent operating systems by Microsoft — Windows Server 2016, and Windows 10 in VDI, including Windows 10 RedStone1. The solution is compatible with Hyper-V 2016 and reinforces the security capabilities of the latest virtualization platform from Microsoft."
The company also said the "new version brings several architecture improvements for better manageability across the entire data center estate. Kaspersky Security for Virtualization Light Agent can now be deployed simultaneously, onto a number of Microsoft Windows Hyper-V hosts, due to its integration with the System Center Virtual Machine Manager. The Light Agent UI can now be disabled on any VM in the software-defined data center— to bring resource-efficiency to virtualized infrastructure running on Windows Server OS (when Remote Desktop or Terminal Services are enabled), application virtualization based on Citrix XenApp, and Microsoft Windows Terminal Services environments. Light Agent now also allows users to specify exceptions or configure enforced scanning policies using a wider list of software vendors and their applications.
"With this major release of our virtualization security solution we are addressing the needs of the customers who own heterogeneous data centers with various platforms and operating systems,” said Vitaly Mzokov, solution business lead, hybrid cloud and data center security, Kaspersky Lab. “The virtualization-aware architecture of the solution provides a comprehensive toolset of protective technologies designed to work in harmony with a customer’s software-defined data center. From now on, whatever operating system is running – Microsoft Windows or Linux – we can make sure that the data center receives exactly the security capabilities it needs, to preserve the agility of the entire organization’s cybersecurity strategy.”
Kaspersky Security for Virtualization Light Agent is now available globally. More information about the solution, pricing and Kaspersky Lab’s approach to data center security can be found on the firm’s website.
