Abstract

In virtual environments, anti-virus (A/V) solutions can be implemented as a client-based agent, whereby all security processing takes place on the client, a virtual appliance that handles the A/V workload- or some hybrid of the two. As more users of virtual infrastructures begin to understand the advantages of virtualization-specific security solutions over traditional agent-based approaches, leading vendors have begun to take note, adding such virtualization-specific products to their portfolios. Efficient resource usage with minimal impact on the host and virtual infrastructure, specifically, are the primary benefits of using a solution optimized for a virtual environment.

Kaspersky Lab commissioned Tolly to benchmark the performance and effectiveness of its new, agentless Security for Virtualization v2.0 offering in VMware vSphere 5 virtual environments vs. agentless Trend Micro Deep Security 8 SP2 and McAfee MOVE Agentless Security 2.6 and agent-based Symantec SEP 12.1.2.

Tolly found that Kaspersky Security for Virtualization 2.0 blends efficient hypervisor resource usage with solid protection abilities by delivering lower average response times and disk usage than the other products tested. Kaspersky also defended against threats better than the the other agentless offerings under test.