Reflex Systems Offers New Rev of Virtualization Management Platform

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 09/10/09

Reflex Systems has released version 2.0 of Reflex VMC, its virtualization integration platform. Updates show up in its policy and software asset management functions, role-based access control, and cloud-computing features. Reflex Virtualization Management Center (VMC) integrates security, compliance, audit, and management of the virtual environment.

vTrust, the product's policy enforcement technology now includes infrastructure and compliance policy settings. With Infrastructure Policy settings, the administrator can use criteria such as configuration changes, storage, memory, and CPU thresholds to set policies. These policies can then be used to provision virtual machines, allocate resources, and act based on security events. Automation-based policies, written to respond to infrastructure events, can also be configured to segment virtual machines into groups or zones and classify them, and then be used to define policies.

The new release now includes virtual software asset management, which can track and monitor installed applications on each virtual machine to determine version, install date, patch status, and other details.

Role-based access control functionality in version 2.0 allows the administrator to define and control user access levels of virtual machines and aspects of the virtual infrastructure.

The company has also released an optional Cloud API, which will allow service providers and large enterprises to provision and manage security and compliance by tenant in a cloud environment.

"Reflex continues to be an innovator in integrated virtualization management and security offerings," said Focus Consulting President and Chief Analyst Barb Goldworm. "Our recent research shows that IT organizations are making huge strides in expanding virtualization to the next set of servers and applications, and we believe that strong security and policy management will be critical success factors in that growth. Reflex has been a leader in integrating security and network management, and their new asset management and policy enforcement capabilities, along with support for VMsafe, continue to build on that leadership."

"The customer-driven enhancements we have made to Reflex VMC reflect real-world requirements for managing and securing virtual infrastructures," said Pete Privateer, president and CEO of Reflex Systems. "By dynamically managing virtual environments and automatically enforcing compliance with IT policies and government mandates [with VMC v2], customers can reduce their management costs by as much as 50 percent."