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P R O D U C T   D A T A S H E E T   /   1

D A T A S H E E T

AT A G L ANCE

VMware vShield App, part of the VMware vShield 

family of virtualization security products, protects 
applications in the virtual datacenter from network-
based threats. vShield App gives organizations deep 

visibility into network communications between 
virtual machines and enables granular policy 
enforcement with security groups. The solution  
also eliminates the hardware and policy sprawl 
associated through traditional measures, resulting  

in a cost-effective solution that helps customers to  

go beyond the limitations of physical security.

KE y B EN EFITS

• Increase visibility and control over network 

communications between virtual machines.

• Eliminate the need for dedicated hardware  

and VLANs to separate security groups from  
one another.

• Optimize hardware resource utilization while 

maintaining strong security. 

• Simplify compliance with comprehensive logging 

of all virtual machine network activity.

VMware vShield App

Protect Applications from Network-based Attacks

What Is VMware  

vShield App?

VMware vShield App is a hypervisor-based application-aware 
firewall solution for virtual datacenters. vShield App plugs 
directly into VMware vSphere™ to protect against internal 
network-based threats and reduce the risk of policy violations 
within the corporate security perimeter using application-aware 
firewalling with deep packet inspection and connection control 
based on source and destination IP addresses.

vShield helps to simplify policy control by enabling the rapid 
creation of business-relevant security groups and includes flow 
monitoring to analyze virtual machine network traffic and 
dynamically enforce security group policies. Administrators  
can centrally manage vShield App through the included vShield 
Manager console, which integrates seamlessly with VMware 
vCenter™ Server to facilitate unified security management for 
virtual datacenters.

How Does VMware vShield 

App Work?

vShield App installs on each vSphere host, controlling and 
monitoring all network traffic on the host, even for packets that 
never cross a physical network interface card (NIC). vShield App 
can create and enforce policies based on administrator-defined, 
business-relevant security groups instead of physical boundaries 
or static assumptions about application deployments.

vShield App provides a centralized interface that leverages 
vCenter Server to consistently apply these policies across 
multiple vSphere hosts in the virtual datacenter.

How Is VMware vShield 

App Used?

• 

Eliminate blind spots

 – vShield App helps administrators 

define and enforce granular policies for all traffic that crosses a 
virtual NIC, increasing visibility over internal virtual datacenter 
traffic while helping to eliminate detours to physical firewalls.

• 

Maintain change-aware protection

 – vShield App helps to 

ensure that network topology changes do not impact 
application security with continuous firewall protection for 
virtual machines as they migrate from host to host.

VMware vShield App enables granular policy enforcement using security groups.

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