BeyondTrust, the global leader in privilege delegation and authorization management, today announced PowerBroker for Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDI). With the introduction of PowerBroker for VDI, BeyondTrust is now the only company to provide centralized security and compliance through privilege delegation for servers and desktops in virtualized and cloud infrastructures.
"Attaining Least Privilege User posture in virtualized desktop environments is challenging and customers are forced to make compromises on security in favor of cost-savings," said Saurabh Bhatnagar, VP of product management, BeyondTrust. "End-users can have the best of both worlds. PowerBroker for Windows Desktops provides an elegant privilege delegation solution, enabling organizations to embrace VDI while upholding security and compliance requirements.”
According to Gartner, “The worldwide hosted virtual desktop (HVD) market will accelerate through 2013 to reach 49 million units, up from more than 500,000 units in 2009. Worldwide HVD revenue will grow from about $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion in 2009, which is less than 1 percent of the worldwide professional PC market, to $65.7 billion in 2013, which will be equal to more than 40 percent of the worldwide professional PC market.
In Citrix environments, for applications requiring administrative rights to be accessed users must run as administrators. The administrator privilege can be exploited by malware and users to change standard desktop configuration settings, install unlicensed software and disable other security solutions. Similarly in Microsoft or VMware virtualized environments, it is very common for users running as administrators to inadvertently misconfigure settings for other users, causing disruption in business and creating unnecessary helpdesk overhead.
BeyondTrust PowerBroker for Desktops enables organizations to remove administrator rights and allow end-users to run all required Windows applications, processes and ActiveX controls based on preapproved policy. This enables heightened security and compliance even in virtualized desktop environments, while allowing organizations to harness the cost efficiencies of VDI. As more businesses move to VDI as part of their Windows 7 upgrade cycle, PowerBroker for Desktops will be a key component to ensure secure successful migrations.
"Organizations adopting virtualized desktop infrastructures are struggling with the issue of privilege management," said Håkan Andersson, CEO of Sweden-based Cloud Solutions AB, a Gold-level reseller in the BeyondTrust Privileged Partner Program (P3). "They are just amazed at how easy it is to re-securitize their VDI with PowerBroker for Windows Desktops, without compromising the productivity of their employees."
PowerBroker for Desktops supports multiple desktop virtualization vendors including Microsoft, Citrix and VMware. BeyondTrust is a gold certified partner in the Microsoft Partner Program and is also a member of the VMware Technology Alliance Partner program.
BeyondTrust also offers PowerBroker for Server Virtualization, providing centralized risk reduction from the misuse of privilege at both the hypervisors and guest VM levels. BeyondTrust has solutions for both Public and Private cloud infrastructures, and is an active corporate sponsor of the Cloud Security Alliance. With PowerBroker for VDI, BeyondTrust offers a cross platform package for privilege management in virtualized environments and cloud infrastructures.
For more information on PowerBroker for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, please visit www.beyondtrust.com.