APANI LAUNCHES PLATFORM FOR VIRTUAL/PHYSICAL DATA SECURITY.

Apani, San Francisco, Calif. a provider of cross-platform server isolation solutions for large enterprises, has launched EpiForce VM (http://www.apani.com/vm), the first single-platform security solution for protecting both virtual and physical machines.

Enterprises are rapidly deploying server virtualization to realize benefits associated with increased operational flexibility, improved utilization, avoidance of unplanned downtime and a reduced carbon footprint. The rush to virtualize has caused many to overlook security best-practices common in a physical environment. According to Gartner, through 2009, 60 percent of virtual machines used in production will be less secure than their physical counterparts. While the benefits of server virtualization are clear, security challenges force enterprises to make trade-offs between broad deployment and security that is robust enough to protect their business. By offering robust virtual and physical machine security, EpiForce VM enables enterprises to fully deploy server virtualization and realize the benefits it offers.

Apani EpiForce VM is a unique software-based alternative to security appliances that operate only in a virtual environment and to internal network firewalls and VLANs used for physical segmentation within the corporate network. The concept behind EpiForce VM is to enable a single platform that isolates both virtual and physical servers, endpoints and business-critical data into logical security zones, regardless of their platform or physical location on the network. Communications between these zones is strictly controlled by authentication of all machine-to-machine traffic and selective encryption based on policy.

"To exploit virtualization to its fullest, and become vastly more agile in responding to changing business requirements and opportunities, IT needs to embrace security tools that can fully cope with servers that move from place to place within or among data centers, that change MAC and IP addresses along the way, and that may exist for only a few hours at a time," said John Burke, principle research analyst, Nemertes Research.

"The challenge today is that physical solutions like VLANs and internal network firewalls are based on physical connections

and don't mesh well with virtualized servers," said Scott Ferguson, vice president of product management at Apani. "And addressing server virtualization security as if it were a separate network adds yet another layer of management, which negates one of the reasons for deploying server virtualization in the first place - operational flexibility."

EpiForce VM uses on-demand policy distribution to offer enterprises the ability to manage and deploy policy to thousands of virtual or physical servers and endpoints with no impact to the network, application, or user. EpiForce VM offers a centralized management console that enables a consolidated view to manage all EpiForce VM-protected machines - whether they are virtual or physical, without regard to their physical location on the network. Persistent security allows administrators to utilize VMotion or Virtual Center to migrate EpiForce VM-protected virtual machines from one physical host to another with no disruption of security policy, minimizing unplanned downtime and maximizing operational flexibility.

EpiForce VM offers enterprises running VMware ESX Server 3.0 many unique benefits, including the following:

* Protect virtual machines and physical servers and endpoints with a single solution

* Manage all EpiForce VM-protected machines through a single management console, regardless of platform or physical location and without the need to reconfigure the network

* Migrate virtual machines using VMotion or Virtual Center without compromising security policy

* Protect virtual machines from vulnerabilities introduced through VM sprawl

Other EpiForce VM features include the following:

* Cross-platform support secures complex, heterogeneous environments * Network layer transparency offers deployment in days rather than months

* On-demand policy distribution deploys policy to tens or hundred of thousands of machines without impacting network performance

* Distributed architecture eliminates bottlenecks and single points of failure * Manage policy from virtual or physical administrator consoles - or both

* Robust audit, logging and reporting enable full administrator visibility * Role-based delegation of administrative privileges accommodates almost any organizational process

"The industry is rushing toward virtualization and many vendors are rapidly introducing virtual-only point products," continued Ferguson. "We made a strategic decision based on the reality that enterprises have a mix of legacy systems, virtualized servers and everything in between. We offer a more practical approach - the same, simple-to-use security application, any platform, any location. It's the way securing a virtualized environment should be."

Committed to the industry movement toward virtualization, Apani is part of the first group of companies to be selected to participate in VMware VMsafe(tm) Developers Program. The VMsafe Developer's Program consists of leading high technology companies building a new class of open, interoperable and cross-platform innovations for virtual machines. Apani is also a member of the VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program as a Select Partner.

EpiForce VM will be available early in Q2 and will initially support VMware ESX Server 3.0. More information on EpiForce VM can be obtained by visiting http://www.apani.com/vm.

About Apani

Apani(r) is the preeminent provider of cross-platform server isolation (http://www.apani.com/index.php?home=3D1) solutions for large enterprises. Apani's solution isolates and secures the communication between servers and endpoints without regard to operating system or physical location.

Apani EpiForce(r), the company's flagship product, is a software-based alternative to using firewalls and VLANs inside the corporate network. EpiForce enables two powerful disciplines - logical security zoning and policy-based encryption of data in motion. EpiForce is a distributed, centrally-managed solution that is transparent to users, applications and infrastructure - making it quicker to deploy and less costly to manage than hardware-centric solutions. Policy enforced by EpiForce is persistent, which enables protected resources to be relocated without compromising security.

Providing an evolutionary improvement in efficiency, flexibility, manageability and total cost of ownership, Apani technology is used by much of the Fortune 500.

Based in Southern California, Apani was founded in 2003 and is privately held.

For more information, visit http://www.apani.com or call 949/453-8080.