Founded: March 2007
Headquarters: California, USA
Management: CEO Amir Ben-Efraim, previously head of business development for Check Point Software.
Funding: US$1.5 million of Series A funding in 2007 from Accel Partners and Foundation Capital.
How the company got its start: Company founders saw a "big blind spot in inter-virtual-machine communication" with what virtual vendors are calling virtual switches or virtual bridges, Ben-Efraim says. These virtual switches allow virtual machines to communicate with each other, but also create a new layer of switching that is "effectively invisible to network security and other network tools," he explains. Altor wants to provide visibility into that layer of switching and make sure communications among virtual machines are secure.
What the company offers: Altor offers Virtual Network Security Analyzer 1.0, software packaged as a virtual appliance. The VNSA dashboard provides a comprehensive look at the virtual network and analyzes traffic to identify application grouping. Agents hook into hypervisors to give network-security managers a picture of the top application talkers, most-used protocols and other aspects of virtualization relevant to security. VNSA also includes centralized management capabilities to enable the management of multiple agents. By summer, Altor plans to make available its Virtual Network Firewall, which Efraim says will help IT "tie security policies directly to a [virtual machine] and have the policies follow it through its entire life cycle." VNSA works with any virtualization platform; for VMware users, it integrates with the VirtualCenter management application.
Why it's worth watching: Altor plans to do "everything from firewall to intrusion prevention to network-access control in the virtual environment, which is pretty ambitious," Hochmuch says. "Not only can the technology look at traffic, it can act on it. It can drop packets, manipulate traffic and quarantine machines. The company's background is Check Point, so it is one to watch for security."
How the company got its name: In Latin, "altor" means protector. Founders wanted to emphasize the protection of virtual environments in the company name.
Who's using the product: Attunity, Nielsen Mobile, Simply Continuous and Vital Signs Technology are beta testers.
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Computerworld Live Podcast #97: The Future of Enterprise Networking 25/07/2008 09:45:36
This week CW Live chats with Mark Thompson, global sales and marketing manager for HP ProCurve, on the future of the enterprise networking. Mark discusses the trends we can expect to see in the near future and how the right infrastructure can ensure your enterprise network is secure. - +
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IT Security Edition #11: How to poison the Storm botnet 01/05/2008 08:51:55
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IT Security Edition #10: Cyber-battles fought and won 24/04/2008 11:09:47
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Everything you need to know about email and web security (but were afraid to ask)
What you don’t know can destroy your business. It’s hard to imagine modern business without the internet but in the last few years it has become fraught with danger. Read on to discover how internet security can give your business a competitive advantage.
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