I recently had the opportunity to speak with Altor Networks CEO, Amir Ben-Efraim, so that I could find out more information about virtual networks and what Altor Networks is trying to do with them.

Q: So if you would, please tell us about Altor Networks?
Altor Networks is a virtual network security company whose vision is to make the virtual network more secure than its physical counterpart. Our team consists of world-class experts in network security, with experience from some of the most respected vendors in the industry.

Q: What is it that you have seen that says virtualization is plagued in the networking security space? And is there a big threat happening?
Virtual servers are just as vulnerable as their physical counterparts. Security best-practices must be implemented, much like they were in the physical world. However, best-practices in the virtual environment must also consider the new characteristics presented by virtualization. Three main things have made this interesting from a security perspective:

• As the number of virtual machines per physical server increases, the virtual network becomes the true network access layer. Given the fact that this network cannot be monitored or controlled makes it ripe territory for security mishaps.
  
• Legacy security solutions have not kept pace with the innovative productivity features of virtualization – live-migration, rollbacks, pause-restart, are not common place in the physical world. As such, legacy security solutions cannot adequately protect the virtual environment.
  
• Last but not least, during server consolidation, intentionally or unintentionally, servers with varying security postures and risk profiles are consolidated onto one physical server, but security best practices do not follow them into the virtual world.

We believe that deploying security as part of the virtual infrastructure and following security best practices will increase adoption of virtualization and maximize the return on investment.

Q: Why is it that your company claims that a virtual datacenter can be made more secure than a physical one?
By closely integrating with virtual infrastructure APIs (e.g. VMware's VMsafe) and virtualization management systems (e.g., Virtual Center), our products can articulate and enforce a security policy-per-VM. This locks down each VM to its defined services and network communications, achieving a fine-grained level of isolation. This level of security granularity is rarely found in the physical data-center. Our products can thus achieve an unprecedented level of access and control over virtual-switch traffic, which is not possible to achieve in the physical world.

Read the entire interview, here.