This comparatively young company was born in 2009 and has just begun shipping in 2011. To our eyes, this looks like a company that applied security solutions to challenges in the virtual world that are virtual versions of physical world problems. For example, compliance is an issue whether your data center is physical or virtual. The way you address the technology in the virtual world is different from the way you address it in the physical.
HighCloud deploys encryption very creatively. They address the most difficult vulnerability in commercial-grade encryption: key management. And they do that very well, indeed. Crypto presents a pretty big set of performance challenges to the virtual environment, so HighCloud has addressed that as well. Add compliance, addressing the problem at the virtual machine itself, and facilitating migration of VMs that are encrypted without risk of loss, and you have the HighCloud package in a nutshell.
Another issue is separation of duties. That can be a challenge in the physical world, but it is a bigger challenge in the virtual because there are additional levels of administration. HighCloud addresses that problem by adding peer oversight so that a security administrator can manage the security issues of multiple levels of administration.
A big piece of making all of these capabilities work is the inclusion of a good management interface. Looking somewhat like the familiar VMware admin GUI, the HighCloud administrator interface is clean, intuitive and effective for admins in a hurry, as they always are.
Pricing is very reasonable, starting at $3,000 for a 10-pack of VM licenses. This one is well-positioned to be a leader in this space.
At a glance
Product: HighCloud VM-Centric Security
Company: High Cloud Security
Price: Starts at $3,000 for 10 VMs
What it does: Virtual machine encryption and compliance
What we liked: Well thought-out solution to a real problem: encryption key management in the virtual world.
HighCloud deploys encryption very creatively. They address the most difficult vulnerability in commercial-grade encryption: key management. And they do that very well, indeed. Crypto presents a pretty big set of performance challenges to the virtual environment, so HighCloud has addressed that as well. Add compliance, addressing the problem at the virtual machine itself, and facilitating migration of VMs that are encrypted without risk of loss, and you have the HighCloud package in a nutshell.
Another issue is separation of duties. That can be a challenge in the physical world, but it is a bigger challenge in the virtual because there are additional levels of administration. HighCloud addresses that problem by adding peer oversight so that a security administrator can manage the security issues of multiple levels of administration.
A big piece of making all of these capabilities work is the inclusion of a good management interface. Looking somewhat like the familiar VMware admin GUI, the HighCloud administrator interface is clean, intuitive and effective for admins in a hurry, as they always are.
Pricing is very reasonable, starting at $3,000 for a 10-pack of VM licenses. This one is well-positioned to be a leader in this space.
At a glance
Product: HighCloud VM-Centric Security
Company: High Cloud Security
Price: Starts at $3,000 for 10 VMs
What it does: Virtual machine encryption and compliance
What we liked: Well thought-out solution to a real problem: encryption key management in the virtual world.
