Shavlik Technologies, LLC, the market leader in delivering software solutions that rapidly accelerate and continuously improve security and compliance readiness, has added industry-leading capabilities to its suite of security solutions targeted at securing virtual machines. Shavlik will soon deliver the industry’s first solution that provides organizations with the ability to assess and remediate the patch levels of their physical servers, online virtual machines and offline virtual machines – in VMware and Microsoft virtual environments.

“The adoption rate of virtualization in the data center has exploded over the last couple of years due to the cost effectiveness of increased server utilization. But that cost savings can quickly erode if manual processes are being utilized to maintain required patch levels across those virtual systems,” says Charles Kolodgy, research director, Secure Content and Threat Management Products, with IDC. “Automation of security management in virtualized environments is essential as now a single machine can play host to 5, 10, or 100 virtual images, each of which must be kept secure. In addition, offline virtual machines must also be kept secure and compliant so that they do not introduce vulnerabilities when brought back online.”

Shavlik Technologies’ solutions for securing virtual machines provide data centers with a complete picture of the security status of their entire virtual environment, whether online or offline. Shavlik has leveraged its industry leading agentless technology to reach across the entire data center to deliver the same level of security to offline virtual images as it delivers to physical servers and mounted, online virtual machines.

“Most of the current solutions available today for virtualization security allow companies to assess and audit for gaps in security and compliance, but then you’re on your own to determine how to close those gaps – which reduces some of the efficiencies gained by moving to virtualization in the first place,” said Mark Shavlik, CEO of Shavlik Technologies. “Shavlik’s philosophy has always been to simplify and automate the entire security and compliance management cycle: 1. Establish a known security state, 2. Assess for gaps in that state, and 3. Close those gaps – and this should occur continually and automatically from a single solution.”

The next release of Shavlik NetChk Protect, available in early Q2, provides the following new and unique features to secure offline virtual images:

• Extend Shavlik’s Any Patch, Any Where assessment technology to offline virtual images
• Fully automate continuous patch assessment and deployment to lower costs and reduce demands on IT staff
• Drive a higher state of security through continuous identification and remediation of system security gaps
• Aggregate reporting allows a view of everything on the network in a single, comprehensive report

Shavlik Technologies’ CTO, Eric Schultze, will be demonstrating these new virtualization capabilities in a webinar, delivered live, at the RSA Conference from the Shavlik booth #1917. Those not attending the RSA Conference can also view this webinar live by registering at www.shavlik.com/products/webinars.aspx.