Apani announced that EpiForce VM is now shipping. EpiForce VM is a software-based solution that secures corporate networks, containing both physical and virtual servers, from a single platform. EpiForce VM is part of Apani's comprehensive security software product family and leverages the latest platform of the company's flagship product EpiForce 2.5.

Apani's product family provides enterprises the ability to adopt a single security solution that will protect the entire network. From legacy systems to contemporary platforms and now virtual environments, Apani's EpiForce product line is the silver bullet for enterprise IT departments looking for an alternative to traditional solutions like firewalls and virtual LANs (VLANs).

Enterprises are 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.

"Our customers have large and complex data centers and computing environments that contain a mix of virtual and physical servers," said Scott Ferguson, vice president of product management at Apani. "They told us that a silo approach to security does not work and requires a single solution that is more cost-effective because it's a software platform and more secure because it covers their entire network and not just a subset."

Apani EpiForce VM is a 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.

"Virtualization crosses the boundaries between networks, servers, storage and security," said Andreas M. Antonopoulos, senior vice president, Nemertes Research. "To harness virtualization's potential companies need to bring together people from different IT groups. By sharing a single tool or platform, IT teams from different disciplines can come together faster and more effectively."