Latest News from Catherine Edwards

ResponseLogixOffers SmartQuote for Pre-Owner Vehicles

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:18:00 EST

ResponseLogix, Inc., the leading provider of automotive digital response management software for Internet leads, today announced the release of SmartQuote™ for pre-owned vehicle leads. Customers who send requests for information on pre-owned vehicles to auto dealers that use ResponseLogix will now experience the same speed and quality of price quote response as new car buyers have experienced. “To date, SmartQuote has been available only for new car leads. Now pre-owned leads can receive a comprehensive, multi-vehicle price quote as well,” said Tom Mohr, President and CEO of ResponseLogix. “Given that gross margins for pre-owned vehicles are higher than those for new vehicles, this is an exciting product extension.” SmartQuote for pre-owned vehicles allows dealers to quickly and efficiently respond to their pre-owned Internet leads in a professional and consistent manner. The car buyer is presented with a quote that leads with a VIN-specific pre-owned automobile and includes quotes for up to three other comparable pre-owned cars and three more similar new vehicles. “This is invaluable in that it allows the salespersons to spend their time getting customers off the keyboard and on the phone as opposed to constructing a customized response,” said Steven Martin, Internet Sales Director at Sport City Toyota in Dallas, Texas. “We love this tool!” With the ResponseLogix solution suite, auto dealers are able to deliver to a car buyer a price quote on multiple vehicles, consistent with his or her trim-level request, from the assigned sales representative in less than 10 minutes. ResponseLogix solves the top three challenges facing auto dealer Internet sales departments: increasing the speed and quality of initial response to leads, improving the impact and consistency of ongoing follow up, and through analytics helping the dealer manage the online and person-to-person communications between the customer and the dealer.

ResponseLogix™ Signs Reseller Agreement with Washington Post

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:29:52 EDT

Sunnyvale, Calif – October 28, 2009 – ResponseLogix, Inc., the leading provider of automotive digital response management software for Internet leads, today announced the opening of the Washington D.C.-metro market through an exclusive reseller agreement with The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO). One of the top 10 markets in the country, the Washington D.C. market is characterized by high quality, large volume dealerships and an Internet savvy clientele of well-educated automobile buyers who demand an immediate and professional response to their Internet queries. “We are excited to offer ResponseLogix’s software solutions to our auto dealer clients in order to help them respond to potential customers in a timely, consistent and relevant way,” said Tim Condon, Director, Classified Advertising, The Washington Post. “We believe dealers using ResponseLogix will benefit by quickly delivering customized quotes to their Internet leads, freeing up their sales managers to spend more face time with the buyer.” With the ResponseLogix solution suite, auto dealers are able to deliver to a car buyer a price quote on multiple vehicles, consistent with his or her trim-level request, from the assigned sales representative in less than 10 minutes. ResponseLogix solves the top three challenges facing auto dealer Internet sales departments: increasing the speed and quality of initial response to leads, improving the impact and consistency of ongoing follow up, and managing the online and person-to-person communications. “The Washington Post has a strong track record of serving its readers and business customers with the highest levels of professionalism and good service,” said Tom Mohr, President and CEO of ResponseLogix. “Having a partner with the prestige and marketing savvy of The Washington Post, who already has strong relationships with their local automotive dealers, further validates our value proposition -- that a rapid quote response is the key to driving Internet sales.”

ResponseLogix™ Closes $5.6 Million in New Funding

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:24:44 EDT

Sunnyvale, Calif – October 26, 2009 – ResponseLogix, Inc., the leading provider of automotive digital response management software, today announced the closing of $5.6 million in new funding led by Emergence Capital Partners. The round also included existing investors GRP Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Belo Corp. and AH Belo Corp. The funds will be used to further cement ResponseLogix’s leadership in the growing market for internet lead management services to the auto industry. “Emergence Capital Partners invested in ResponseLogix because of its market leadership position, compelling customer value proposition, and the experience and passion of the management team,” said Jason Green, General Partner at Emergence Capital Partners. “We have watched ResponseLogix grow its business dramatically during one of the worst financial and auto industry downturns in history. I can’t wait to see what happens to this company as the economy rebounds.” Emergence Capital Partners is the leading venture capital firm focused on cloud-based business and consumer services companies. In 2002, Emergence Capital was the first to recognize the power and potential of SaaS to disrupt the technology industry and invested in some of the most successful companies including Salesforce.com and SuccessFactors. Their mission is to help build market leading companies in true partnership with forward thinking entrepreneurs. Today the firm has over $325 million under management from premiere institutional investors. “The Emergence team has a proven track record of funding and building market-leading technology companies, particularly software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses. As a SaaS business ourselves, we are delighted to partner with them to accelerate our growth,” said Tom Mohr, President and CEO of ResponseLogix. “We are also pleased that existing investors joined Emergence in this financing. The commitment of all our investors in ResponseLogix further validates our value proposition -- that a rapid quote response and effective ongoing customer follow-up are the keys to driving automotive Internet sales.”

New San Jose Law Firm Focused on Complex Litigation

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:00:00 EDT

San Jose, Calif. –Sept. 28, 2009 – Seasoned trial attorney and litigator Robert M. Vantress announced today the formation of Vantress Law Group, a new San Jose boutique firm that is focused on complex litigation matters including intellectual property, computer and Internet, employment, real estate and other complex or commercial disputes. Vantress was formally with international law firm Baker & McKenzie and co-founded Silicon Valley Law Group, a business law firm, 15 years ago. “Given the current changes that are occurring in the business, financial and legal markets, it is the right time for a highly specialized litigation law firm that can provide top quality service,” said Vantress, who has 27 years of expertise resolving litigation matters. “A smaller more focused practice with lower overhead can offer clients the same quality services but at significantly lower cost structure, and remain competitive despite today’s demanding economic market.” The firm provides a full range of trial, litigation and dispute resolution services, representing both corporations and individuals during discovery, trial and appeal. Vantress Law Group helps clients prevent, resolve, win and fund litigation, including arbitration or trial if necessary. "Rob Vantress is a top-drawer litigator, has tried more cases than most litigators, so his trial light is always on as he evaluates and re-evaluates evidence and builds the trial in his head. Ironically, this is precisely the kind of thinking that brings to settlement those cases that should never go to trial,” said Lee Green, general counsel at K-Swiss. “I don't think I have ever worked with anyone who can outwork Rob or who has ever been better prepared for a hearing, a deposition, or trial. His experience and skills were critical to K-Swiss in our long trademark and trade dress litigation against Payless ShoeSource and our very successful settlement of that case." Vantress has successfully represented individuals and small to medium-sized businesses against large corporations such as Payless ShoeSource and Oracle Corporation. Most clients are based in Silicon Valley; however he has appeared or tried cases in many California cities and throughout the United States. Vantress has achieved positive outcomes for his clients as he opposed large, well-known national law firms including Latham & Watkins, Fenwick & West, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliff, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Baker & McKenzie, McDermott, Will & Emery and Lathrop & Gage. The three primary Vantress Law Group Practice Areas are: • Intellectual property, Computer & Internet, including copyright, patent, trademark, trade dress, trade secret and related unfair competition claims; i.e., protection of a business’ most valuable assets, including protection of its name, domain name or URL, reputation, style of doing business, business methodology, goodwill, contracts, customers and customer information, employees, confidential information, computers and networks, website content and original media. • Labor and employment, i.e., Ownership of property and inventions, protection of trade secrets and other confidential information including inventions, customer information and customer lists, employee information, product specifications and marketing and business plans, hiring, discipline or other employment discrimination, retaliation, family medial leave, termination and wage and hour claims, defamation, violation of civil rights, sexual harassment, whistle blowing, employment policies and procedures and contracts, executive compensation, and training both for human resources departments and other staff; • Real estate; i.e., Sales, lease, license, construction payments and defects, financing and development, condominium, easements, nuisance and noise, water and earth movement disputes, and real estate agency or commission disputes

Altor Networks Virtualization Security Leadership Award

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:17:00 EDT

The Altor VF virtual firewall with intrusion detection offers defense-in-depth virtualization security with mission critical reliability for those applications carrying high value business traffic. Most customers see throughput performance that is in most cases 20 times greater than that of virtual firewalls running as virtual machine appliances. Purpose-built for the virtual environment, the Altor VF delivers the features necessary to not only interoperate but also optimize the virtual network for secure operation.

Avoid Pitfalls by Baking Security into Virtualization Deployments

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:30:00 EDT

At last week’s SAN’s virtualization security summit some 120 security managers, newly tasked with protecting their expanding virtualization environments, were eager to learn how to establish control and achieve compliance. Whether the representatives came from the DOD and civilian agencies or large scale commercial enterprises all agreed that growth of virtualization adoption is already happening. The cost savings in data center footprint and power consumption alone are simply too great to pass up especially given today’s economic climate. One challenge with virtual machine (VM) proliferation, however, is that implementation standard practice does not include the provisioning of security as a compulsory step. This leaves the VM environment largely vulnerable to the same kinds of threats that physical networks are equipped to guard against. One director confided that his organization thought they had 50 virtual machines (VMs) when in fact the audit revealed a total of 250. This means that mission critical traffic is potentially flowing among 250 VMs without any kind of inspection for policy compliance or for malicious code like viruses and worms. How can this be the case? Because traditional network security devices like firewalls and intrusion detection scanners (IDS) are blind to traffic between VMs. This is why Altor created a purpose built solution for ensuring that the flow of mission critical traffic within virtualized environments is secure. The Altor VF virtual firewall with on-board IDS also supports vMotion and vCenter integration so that the implementation of VM security does not detract from ease of administration. Amir Ben-Efraim, CEO of Altor Networks and expert speaker at the SANS summit, spoke about how pitfalls could be avoided by baking security into virtualization deployments. Provisioning security into the solution can also allow for more optimal virtualization ROI. Agreeing with this, Ryan Trost, security director of Comprehensive Health Services (CHS), shared his experiences with large-scale, mission critical virtualization deployment. CHS uses the Altor VF in a mission-critical production environment to ensure compliance and confidence in intra-VM traffic flow. While compliance is certainly a big pain point for virtualization administrators, the concern of putting a solution in place is shared by security administrators, IT operations, information security, as well as auditors and compliance officers. All are stakeholders in enabling mission critical traffic flow on VMs. For more information please visit www.altornetworks.com

The Nielsen Company and Altor Networks Team Up On Virtualization Security Discussion at VMWorld

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:20:00 EDT

Redwood City, CA―August 26, 2009―Altor Networks, provider of best-in-class virtualization and cloud security solutions, and the Nielsen Company, the world’s leading supplier of marketing, media and TV ratings information, will be teaming up to deliver a compelling session on virtualization security best practices. The hour-long session(TA-2405) will take place on Wednesday September 2nd at 2:30 pm. In order to deliver the metrics on which the media industry depends, the Nielsen Company must operate large data centers capable of analyzing enormous volumes of information. The company’s challenges are shared by any organization that deals in the consolidation and processing of information and applications. Like similar firms in the media, financial services, manufacturing and healthcare sectors, Nielsen has turned to virtualization in order to take advantage of efficiencies in space and power consumption. Doing so however, creates unique challenges when it comes to securing the information containing therein. This is where Altor Networks and the company’s expertise in the development of a purpose-built firewall for virtualized environments can help enable secure mission critical traffic flow. Join Nielsen and Altor as they share their experience for best practices in the implementation and optimization of virtualized environments and sustainable security for those networks. Altor will also be demonstrating the latest version of its firewall at booth # 2313.

Altor Networks Customer, CHS, to Speak at SANS Virtualization Summit

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:12:17 EDT

Altor Networks has announced that the Director of Security at CHS will share his experience at the SANS Institute “WhatWorks in Virtualization Security” summit to be held at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington D.C. on August 17 and 18. CHS is deploying the Altor VF virtual firewall in a mission-critical production environment to ensure compliance.

Altor Networks Selected to Present at Next Gen Data Center Conference 2009

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:15:00 EDT

Redwood City, CA―August 4, 2009―Altor Networks, provider of best-in-class virtualization and cloud security solutions, today announced that Todd Ignasiak, Director of Product Management, will present “Revolutionizing Security with the Virtual Data Center” at the Next Gen Data Center (NGDC) conference on August 13th in San Francisco, California. The transition to the virtualized data center has the potential to reset the IT security playing field. Next generation security technologies will allow organizations to move beyond the traditional security silos and build security into the fabric of the data center. “The dynamic nature of virtual machines creates challenges not encountered with physical security,” states Mr. Ignasiak. “But the virtual infrastructure also allows for an unprecedented level of security integration into the platform. By embedding security into the hypervisor, the traditional boundaries between network and host security can be overcome.” The session will address how security in the virtual infrastructure differs from physical network security and the opportunities to move beyond physical limitations. Virtual machines (VMs) can be protected from within the hypervisor without VM end point agents, complicated network configuration or performance degradation. Unlike in physical world deployments, virtualization security solutions can cross the boundary between network and host security for a more powerful security policy and accurate enforcement. The NDGC event is focused on the complete end-to-end solution for the 21st century data center and the new technologies from which these data centers are being built. The conference features exclusive presentations by industry insiders and executives addressing ever-increasing needs for flexibility, scalability and performance in the data center. This session will be held at NGDC on Thursday, April 13th at 9:15 am in room 3003 of Moscone West.

Altor VF 3.0 Extends Juniper Networks STRM Series for Virtualized Servers

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:30:00 EDT

Redwood City, Calif — July 28, 2009 — Altor Networks, provider of best-in-class virtualization and cloud security solutions, today announced the integration of Altor VF 3.0 with Juniper Networks STRM Series Security Threat Response Managers to extend its powerful solution for correlation and threat management into virtualized server environments. "Physical firewall vendors need to offer solutions for protecting virtualized environments. Partnering with a virtualization security solution provider whose products are purpose-built to address the unique security challenges of the virtual environment is one approach," said Neil MacDonald, VP and Gartner Fellow. "A centralized view of security information like logs, events, and network traffic flows is an important first step in unified physical and virtual management.” Altor VF 3.0 provides logs, events, and inter-virtual-machine traffic statistics from inside the virtualized server to the STRM Series via Syslog and Netflow. With this combined solution, customers can continue to use the STRM product features, work flow, and user interface they are already trained for, with the added benefit of including the virtualized server environment. "Lack of visibility and inconsistencies across physical and virtualized server environments are many times the root causes of security issues," said Smita Deshpande, senior product marketing manager Network Management, Juniper Networks (NASDAQ:JNPR). “With Altor VF 3.0 adding inter-virtual-machine intelligence via log and traffic statistics export to Juniper’s STRM Series, customers can get a single-pane, comprehensive, and consistent view across their entire data center." Altor VF 3.0 uses purpose-built, patent-pending technology, and integration with VMware VMsafe APIs to deliver defense-in-depth, and address the unique security challenges of the virtualized environment. By deploying the integrated solution, enterprises can bring the benefits of the leading log and event management solution to the virtualized environment with minimal overhead and cost. “Through our seamless integration with Juniper’s STRM Series we are ensuring that customers get the defense-in-depth of Altor VF 3.0 in the virtualized server environment, at the same time bringing their current STRM Series benefits like centralized log/event management, network wide threat detection, and compliance-reporting to the virtualized data center,” said Poornima DeBolle, vice president of business development at Altor Networks.

CHS Eliminates Blind Spots, Protects Virtual Infrastructure with Altor Networks

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:15:00 EDT

Altor Networks is pioneering best-in-class virtualization security solutions to secure production-oriented virtualized data centers and internal clouds. The company's initial product line includes the industry's first-ever purpose-built virtual firewall with integrated intrusion detection, a software security appliance that runs in a virtualized environment. Data center administrators can pinpoint a broad range of virtual network security compromises and easily create roles-based security policies. Security policies can be continuously enforced on individual virtual machines, even as they move throughout the virtualized data center. Founded by security and networking experts from Check Point Software, Cisco, NetApp and Oracle, Altor Networks is funded by Accel Partners and Foundation Capital and is headquartered in Redwood City, California. For more information, visit www.altornetworks.com.

Third Party Integrations Should Be An Integral Part of Product Plans

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:17:00 EDT

Security requirements of enterprises are varied, and contrary to the one-stop-shop movement, enterprises still buy security products from multiple vendors. While some enterprises do it as a part of an IT plan, most companies end-up with disparate products due to niche needs, acquisitions, etc. In this environment of multiple security products, the customer is typically left holding the ‘integrator bag’. Most security products do not interoperate or integrate with others in the infrastructure, leading to operational nightmares, and may undermine the very problem they are trying to solve by creating security gaps. All security companies, big and small, need to realize that they are neither the first, nor will they be the last security product in the customer environment, and make an earnest effort to use standards-based or published APIs to integrate and interoperate with other security and infrastructure solutions. (Also read recent blog “Security Teams Must Take Control of Virtual Networks.”) Initially at Altor Networks our own product features dominated the product plan. As we spoke with customers, we realized that the integrations they requested to address current pain would add tremendous value to both our own and our partners’ products. The first integration we brought to market was the ability to extend the hardware IDP solution into the virtualized server environment. This benefited the customer in many ways – a) leverage customers’ current investment in IDS systems, b) avoid bogging-down the virtual server with a resource-intensive IDS operation that slows down virtualized applications, c) re-gain visibility into the virtual switching layer that they lost with virtualization, d) ensure there are no security gaps since all intrusion detection and subsequent action work-flow operated seamlessly, e) bring virtualized applications back into compliance. Building upon the success of the IDS integration, we added further integration points such as Netflow (Juniper (NASDAQ: JNPR), Riverbed (NASDAQ: RVBD) , NetQoS, and Q1 Labs) and Syslog export to deliver a comprehensive, centralized, view of the data center (Juniper, ArcSight (NASDAQ: ARST), and Q1 Labs). In today’s climate of aggressive product schedules and diminishing resources, companies that include 3rd Party Integrations as part of their product plan ensure long-term value for their customers' success by supporting a vision for cohesive security solutions.

Security Teams Must Take Control of Virtual Networks

Thu, 28 May 2009 23:00:00 EDT

It’s safe to say, nearly all enterprise network security teams tightly control what physical devices get connected to their networks. Most have clearly defined process and procedures in place with regard to controlling and securing any new devices plugging into their physical networks. Industry statistics show that the vast majority of security breaches initiate from inside the network, and not from an intruder penetrating the perimeter, physical network access control has become standard practice. As a result, it is increasingly rare to allow anyone in an organization to plug in a new server or system without first making sure the new device has been adequately secured in accordance with their corporate security standards including anti-virus protection, firewall policies, etc. For physical devices, the process begins as soon as the ‘box’ hits the receiving dock; the equipment is intercepted and is put through the process of being secured. Once it’s been properly configured to meet the corporate requirements as defined by the security policy, it’s distributed for deployment. Then, and only then, is it plugged into the physical network. Enter the virtual system, be it a virtual server or virtual desktop. These devices are nothing more than software however, to users, they look and feel exactly like actual physical devices on the network. At issue is the ease in which these systems can be created and connected to the corporate network. In about as much time as it takes to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a VM administrator can spin up a new virtual server with all of the attributes of its physical server counterpart including nic, disk, memory, etc. However, this new virtual server can be deployed and added to the network without ever being secured by the security process described earlier. Furthermore, because the virtual server is deployed inside the internal network on a VMware ESX host with vswitches and full connectivity to the network it represents significant security vulnerability if it has not been properly secured. What’s more, because the network traffic traversing inside the virtual network is invisible to network monitoring tools operated on the physical network, the network traffic to and from these unsecured virtual servers inside the ESX host goes completely undetected. The virtual network is in reality an internal network inside the physical network. There is simply no way to see or control the traffic running within the virtual infrastructure. Companies are exposed to numerous security vulnerabilities and compliance issues because of the high percentage of security breaches coming from the internal network along with the fact that the ESX Host(s) represent invisible networks inside the internal network. Any new virtual server being added to the virtual network is not subject to the same corporate security policy for network access control as physical servers. For all of these reasons, security teams must take control of their virtual networks. They must ensure that any system, be it physical or virtual, be properly secured. We encourage security teams to explore virtualized security in detail.

How Does VMsafe Work?

Wed, 20 May 2009 12:00:00 EDT

VMsafe is a set of security-oriented APIs created by VMware and introduced with the launch of vSphere 4. These APIs are not available in older versions of VMware. VMsafe enables 3rd-party ISVs to develop products that closely integrate with vSphere to deliver new capabilities for securing the virtual environment.

Altor Networks Wins Network Products Guide Reader Trust Award for Virtual Network Security

Tue, 19 May 2009 12:16:00 EDT

Altor Networks announced today that Network Products Guide, industry’s leading publication on information technologies and solutions has named Altor VF virtual firewall a winner of the 2009 Best Products and Services Award. This respected annual award honors products and services that represent the rapidly changing needs and interests of the end-users of technology worldwide. As part of the tech-industry’s leading global awards program, this year’s Best Products and Services were nominated from all over the world. The first security solution of its kind and purpose-built for the virtualized environment, the Altor VF monitors and controls inter-VM traffic and enforces security policies at the individual VM level. Designed from scratch to secure the latest virtualization technologies, the Altor VF provides the thorough protection and ease-of-operation missing from traditional network security products that were not designed for the virtual environment. “Increased end-user awareness and ongoing advances in technology are helping shape better products and services.” says Rake Narang, editor-n-chief, Network Products Guide. “Altor VF is the industry’s only complete virtual firewall solution, delivered as a virtual appliance, which secures VMotion and auto deploys for easy installation.” “Network Products Guide’s recognition of the Altor VF is further validation that we are taking a leadership position in providing defense-in-depth security for virtualized environments,” said Catherine Edwards, communications director at Altor Networks. “The Altor VF goes beyond basic virtual firewall functionality to provide best-of-breed protection, and tight integration with existing security management systems, allowing security administrators to feel confident about expanding virtualization to their production environment.” The Altor VF gives customers unprecedented visibility into and granular control over virtual network traffic with award-winning technology that dramatically improves the security of virtual servers in data centers. Data center administrators can now pinpoint virtual security compromises and easily create role-based security policies. Security policies can be continuously enforced on individual VMs, simplifying deployment and on-going security management of the virtual infrastructure while reducing the dangers of security breaches.

Virtual Firewall Integrates with VMsafe APIs

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:32:00 EDT

Altor Networks, creator of the first purpose-built virtual firewall, today announced that it is using VMware VMsafe™ technology to embed the Altor VF virtual firewall into the hypervisor kernel of VMware vSphere™ 4 and provide robust defense-in-depth security for virtual machines (VMs). VMs can be protected without requiring security agents on the guest, complicated network reconfigurations, or performance -degrading remapping of network flows. Altor Networks is integrating the Altor VF purpose-built stateful firewall with VMware vSphere 4 using VMware VMsafe to deliver granular, per-VM, and inter-VM security with blazing performance. In addition, Altor VF will include patent-pending virtual-aware IDS, featuring intelligent scanning that uses the VMware VMsafe APIs and VMware vCenterTM Server integration to apply only relevant signatures to each virtual machine. “For the first time, a hypervisor-based firewall using VMware VMsafe technology will enable defense-in-depth at the individual VM-level while delivering 3-5X faster performance than a firewall/IDS in a virtual machine” said Amir Ben-Efraim, chief executive officer, Altor Networks. The Altor VF is available today, with VMware vSphere 4 integration forthcoming later in Q2 2009. In addition to filtering packets inside the hypervisor, VMware VMsafe technology will enable the Altor VF to explore virtual machine memory pages and see which processes are running inside a VM. Security policy can be applied at an individual-VM level and enforcement of this policy occurs within the Kernel, delivering protection from tampering and the ultimate security and speed. “We are excited to see VMware partners bring to market new security solutions built using VMware VMsafe technology – a key component of VMware vSphere 4, the industry’s first operating system for building the internal cloud,” said Shekar Ayyar, vice president, infrastructure alliances, VMware (NASDAQ: VMW). “Altor VF is an excellent showcase to demonstrate how our technology partners can harness the potential of VMware VMsafe to deliver solutions like virtual firewalls by leveraging the unique capabilities of VMware vSphere 4. Security administrators can deploy Altor VF in combination with VMware vSphere 4 to achieve enhanced security available only in VMware environments.” Purpose-built for the virtual environment, the Altor VF enables secure usage of unique virtualization features, such as VMware VMotion™, and provides ease of administration and tight integration with VMware vCenter™ Server. The Altor VF further delivers defense-in-depth with virtual-aware IDS for up-to-date protection against emerging threats with a security-signature update service.

Info Security Products Guide Names Altor VF Winner

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:31:00 EDT

Altor Networks announced that Info Security Products Guide, the industry’s leading publication on security-related products and technologies has named the Altor VF virtual firewall winner of the 2009 Tomorrow’s Technology Today Award. This prestigious award recognizes security vendors with advanced, ground-breaking technologies and solutions that are helping set the bar higher for others in all areas of information security. The Altor VF was selected based on technologies that are making the most positive impact on security in today’s highly sophisticated and blended attacks environment. The first security solution of its kind and purpose-built for the virtualized environment, the Altor VF monitors and controls inter-VM traffic and enforces security policies at the individual VM level. Designed from scratch to secure the latest virtualization technologies, the Altor VF provides the thorough protection and ease-of-operation missing from traditional network security products that were not designed for the virtual environment. “Threats have no boundaries and security awareness is the key to a proactive approach,” says Rake Narang, editor-in-chief, Info Security Products Guide. “Probably nothing differentiates any product or solution more than the superior technologies that make them suitable for today’s needs while pro-actively being ready for tomorrow too.” “Info Security Products Guide’s recognition of the Altor VF is further validation that we are taking a leadership position in providing defense-in-depth security for virtualized environments,” said Catherine Edwards, communications director at Altor Networks. “The Altor VF goes beyond basic virtual firewall functionality to provide best-of-breed protection, and tight integration with existing security management systems, allowing security administrators to feel confident about expanding virtualization to their production environment.” Altor Networks provides the industry’s only complete virtual firewall solution, delivered as a virtual appliance, which secures VMotion and auto deploys for easy installation. Altor Networks gives customers with unprecedented visibility into and granular control over virtual network traffic with award-winning technology that dramatically improves the security of virtual servers in data centers. Data center administrators can now pinpoint virtual security compromises and easily create role-based security policies. Security policies can be continuously enforced on individual VMs, simplifying deployment and on-going security management of the virtual infrastructure while reducing the dangers of security breaches.

Altor Networks selected as InformationWeek Startup 50 Tech Company

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:08:00 EDT

Redwood City, CA―April 20, 2009―Altor Networks announced today that InformationWeek selected Altor Networks as one of the top Startup 50 tech companies shaking up IT. This prestigious award recognized Altor Networks for its innovation, value and enterprise-readiness, as well as reader votes.

Winsert Installed Altor VF to Monitor Virtual Machines

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:15:00 EDT

Altor Networks has announced that Winsert has selected the Altor VF virtual firewall to secure its virtual environment and mitigate an attack before it could hit their network. After installing Altor VF, Winsert was able to quickly secure its virtual machines (VMs); and for the first time had real time visibility and rule-based control of packet flow in and out of each VM. Winsert, the leading developer and tester of alloy solutions, was using physical servers to support all of their IT applications including Exchange, DNS, file backup, SQL database and an ERP system The company moved to a virtualized environment to achieve high availability and protect against catastrophic failure. “After moving our production applications to a virtualized environment we realized that we lacked security; I had no visibility into what was going on between VMs and a virtual attack could take down our network,” said Vincenzo Speziale, Director of Information Technology at Winsert. “We sought the same level of security for our virtual environment that we had with our physical network.”

Altor VF 2.0 Defense-in-Depth Security Unveiled at VMworld Europe

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:45:00 EST

Altor Networks, creator of the purpose-built virtual firewall, has announced that Altor VF 2.0 virtual firewall will debut at VMworld Europe in Cannes, and will be showcased in the VMsafe section of the Hands-on Lab. VMworld Europe attendees are invited to preview the Altor VF 2.0 at the Hands-on Lab and participate in one of 16 simultaneous live demos of the virtual firewall. VMworld Europe attendees are invited to preview the Altor VF 2.0 at the Hands-on Lab and participate in one of 16 simultaneous live demos of the virtual firewall. This is an opportunity to “sit in the driver’s seat and test drive” Altor VF 2.0 and install, configure and deploy security policies in a virtual network. “We are excited to see VMware’s partners bring to market new security solutions built using VMsafe technology,” said Shekar Ayyar, Vice President, Infrastructure Alliances, VMware (NASDAQ: VMW). “Altor VF is an excellent showcase for harnessing the potential of VMsafeTM to deliver a virtual firewall uniquely designed by leveraging the VMware platform. Security administrators can deploy Altor VF in combination with VMsafe to achieve enhanced security available only in VMware environments.” Altor VF 2.0 provides additional defense-in-depth security to virtualized environments as well as tighter integration with the VMware platform and a new customer-driven advanced reporting module, The first security solution of its kind, and purpose-built for the virtualized environment, the Altor VF monitors and controls inter-VM traffic and enforces security policies at the individual VM level. Designed from scratch to secure the latest virtualization technologies, the Altor VF provides the thorough protection and ease-of-operation missing from traditional network security products that were not designed for the virtual environment. “The release of the Altor VF 2.0 virtual firewall sets a new standard for defense-in-depth in the virtual environment,” said Amir Ben-Efraim, CEO of Altor Networks. “In addition to the many security capabilities currently available in the Altor VF 2.0, we are working closely with VMware to provide a virtual firewall leveraging VMware VMsafe technology. We invite VMworld Europe attendees to join us in the Hands-On Lab to get a firsthand look at the Altor VF, and to preview our VMsafe integration with VMware.” With this release, Altor Networks provides the industry’s only complete virtual firewall solution, delivered as a virtual appliance, which secures VMotion and auto deploys for easy installation. Altor Networks gives customers with unprecedented visibility into and granular control over virtual network traffic with award-winning technology that dramatically improves the security of virtual servers in data centers. Data center administrators can now pinpoint virtual security compromises and easily create role-based security policies. Security policies can be continuously enforced on individual VMs, simplifying deployment and on-going security management of the virtual infrastructure while reducing the dangers of security breaches. Pricing and Availability The Altor VF 2.0 is available immediately, starting at $2,000 per server. For more information, visit Altor’s website at http://www.altornetworks.com.

Altor VF 2.0 Provides Defense-in-Depth Security to Virtualized Environments

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:30:00 EST

Redwood City, Calif―February 17, 2009―Altor Networks, creator of the first purpose-built virtual firewall, today announced the availability of the Altor VF 2.0 virtual firewall which now provides additional defense-in-depth security to virtualized environments as well as tighter integration with VMware and a new customer-driven advanced reporting module. "There are considerable security implications of virtualizing a physical environment," said Brett Waldman, IDC Research Analyst. "Security solutions today are trained to monitor traffic between servers, not within one, thus virtual infrastructures can create blind-spots where malicious activity can occur. Traditional hardware appliances and security software are not designed to meet this challenge, so security solutions will need to adapt to this environment. Altor Networks has taken on this problem by providing virtual defense-in-depth as an easily deployed software appliance that is as agile as the virtual infrastructure itself." Enterprises are increasingly concerned about the risks posed by virtual networks inside virtual servers, which range from security policy violations, such as mixing trusted and un-trusted systems on a shared physical host, to malware exploits that can propagate undetected within a virtual network and quickly spread to other physical servers while remaining invisible to traditional security solutions.

Altor Networks Introduces First Purpose-Built Virtual Firewall to Secure Virtualized Data Centers

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:12:00 EDT

Enterprises are eager to extend virtualization into their data centers to realize the cost savings, operational flexibility, and increased availability they achieved with virtualization in the development and test environments. At the same time, virtualized networks create unique security challenges for production environments. Altor Networks’ new Altor VF addresses those challenges and enables the virtualization of data centers without compromising security.

Mazu Networks and Altor Networks to Deliver Virtual Network Security

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:10:00 EDT

The Altor VF, which was introduced today, is a software security appliance that runs in a virtualized environment and enforces security policy on a per VM-basis. Unlike existing firewalls designed for physical networks, the Altor VF virtual firewall can secure Live Migration – a technology designed to trigger automatic movement of VMs across physical servers, but capable of inadvertently moving an application to a less trusted network.

Altor Networks Joins Juniper Networks J-Partner Solutions Alliance Program

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:10:00 EDT

The joint solution combines industry leading Juniper Networks IDP solutions with the pioneering Altor VF virtual firewall. The Altor VF uses purpose-built, patent-pending technology to meet the unique security challenges of the virtual environment. By deploying this solution, enterprises can bring the benefits of the leading IDP solution to the virtual world with minimal performance overhead or cost.

SANS Institute and Altor Networks to Deliver First-Ever Virtualization Security 101 Webinar (Free), April 23rd

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Redwood City, CA―April 7, 2009―Altor Networks and SANS Institute announced today that they will jointly deliver the first ever “Virtualization Security 101” complimentary webinar on Thursday, April 23rd. Dave Shackleford, author of the SANS Virtualization Security and Operations course, and Todd Ignasiak, Altor Networks Director of Product Management, will discuss the security risks associated with virtual networks. “With its benefits comes a dark side though, since virtualization technology is the focus of many new potential threats and exploits, and presents new vulnerabilities that must be managed,” said Mr. Shackleford . “Organizations should make sure they plan for adequate network access controls, user permissions, and traditional security controls within virtual environments.” Today, server virtualization is being implemented at a rapid pace to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Like any new widespread technology, virtualization is also the focus of many new potential threats and exploits. Security professionals are either scrambling to catch up or helping to plan virtualization projects in many organizations.

Why Do We Need Virtual Security?

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Virtualization has proven incredibly effective at improving operational agility, reducing IT operating costs and lowering data center power and cooling expenses. For these reasons, enterprises world-wide are continuing to heavily invest in virtualization despite the severe economic down-turn affecting most other IT sectors. Virtualization was first popularized by VMware (NYSE: VMW) with a workstation product aimed at developers. Instead of purchasing several PCs per developer, VMware created a similar environment using virtual machines on a single PC. VMware, quickly recognized that the benefits of virtualization also applied to servers and launched its ESX product in 2001. It was first embraced by R&D departments as a cost saver for test and development servers. The early years of server virtualization were mostly about "test-and-dev". Little attention was paid to securing this new infrastructure. The virtualized applications were not mission critical, and developers generally disliked the restrictions that would be imposed by implementing a security policy. Security best practices were not implemented, nor fully developed, to protect these initial deployments. As server virtualization and its multitude of benefits became more widely recognized, other departments began adopting virtualization. Eventually, a myriad of virtualized applications were implemented across HR, Finance, Marketing and Sales. Today, many organizations are looking to virtualize most of their data center to realize the benefits of increased agility and lower IT operating costs; some companies actually plan to be 99% virtual in the coming years. Unfortunately, in the rush to virtualize the industry never took pause to recognize the new security issues that come along with the adoption of this new infrastructure. Security best-practices are still an elusive concept, as they were never fully developed in the early "test-and-dev" deployment days. As more mission-critical and externally-facing applications (i.e, DMZ) go virtual, it is imperative for the industry to implement security controls to protect these deployments. Some common risk factors include mixing VMs of different trust-levels (e.g., QA and Production, R&D and Finance) on a single physical host, with no security monitoring or inspection of the network communication amongst these VMs. This problem is exacerbated by Live-Migration as VMs can dynamically move around the data-center, making unintentional trust-level breaches more common and very difficult to track. Fortunately, a new class of products called virtual security has emerged to tackle the security challenges posed by virtual deployments. Purpose-built virtual security solutions closely integrate with the virtual environment, and permanently attach a security policy to each VM even as it moves to another physical server through Live Migration. By permanently locking down each VM to its intended use (e.g., only allowing port-80 traffic to a web server), an enterprise can achieve defense-in-depth while still retaining all the agility and benefits of virtualization. In fact, by leveraging the unique capabilities of virtualization, virtual security products can combine new techniques such as VM introspection (i.e., looking inside a VM from the hypervisor) along with network controls to deliver innovative security capabilities. Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald recently referred to this innovation as "virtual exploitative" in his blog posting about the development stages of virtual security. By properly embracing virtual security, companies can actually make their virtual data center more secure than its physical counterpart.

Altor VF:VMware VMsafe™ Certified

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Redwood City, Calif―September 1, 2009―A

ResponseLogix™ Closes $5.6 Million in New Funding

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST