Symantec Maps Enterprise Security Solution to VMware vShield

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Symantec’s SEP 12 has been on the market for some 16 months and at 8.5 million deployments is the vendor’s most rapidly adopted enterprise security solution. The latest version, 12.1.2, now includes features that “expand the protection of virtual environments, increase security effectiveness, improve management and broaden platform support,” according to Michael Marfise, Symantec Endpoint Security product management director, writing in a blog post.

According to Marfise, SEP 12.1.2 in VMware environments works as effectively as in non-VMware settings to detect, block and fix anti-malware attacks, though integration with VMware vShield Endpoint by offloading antivirus and anti-malware agent processing to a dedicated virtual appliance. VMware’s vShield Endpoint has been integrated in the vSphere 5.1 platform.

“With robust security and blazing performance, there’s nothing stopping organizations from increasing virtualization of business-critical systems and accelerating moves into cloud computing,” Marfise said.

At VMworld 2012 in August, VMware announced it planned to retire the term vShield in favor of referring to its security platform as vCloud Networking and Security, simultaneously pledging to work more closely with security software developers. Accordingly, Parag Patel, VMware global strategic alliances vice president, said the virtualization vendor “collaborated closely with Symantec so that VMware vShield Endpoint and Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 will work together because our customers are seeking security solutions to embrace virtualizing business critical applications and to accelerate cloud adoption.”

Symantec also has enhanced its SONAR technology to boost protection against zero-day threats. SONAR’s monitoring of abnormal activity has been upped from 400 behaviors to about 1,400, ostensibly to provide better protection from quickly mutating zero-day threats. In addition, Marfise said the software now is easier to deploy, manage and update, as IT administrators can use client wizards after removing existing security technology.

The SEP update also now supports Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, and Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) OS X Mountain Lion.