VMblog:  As a VMworld 2019 sponsor, how can people find you this year?

ExtraHop:  We're an exhibitor this year with a 10x20' booth (#556) featuring several demo stations and field engineers on hand to answer questions and demonstrate how the ExtraHop platform can solve particular problems.

VMblog:  Is there anything unique about this year's booth setup?  Do you have a theme? 

ExtraHop:  This year, our booth will be all about hybrid security. And by hybrid security, we mean one product to provide visibility and security from core to edge to cloud. On that note, we recently announced our cloud-first SaaS-based threat detection, investigation and response service called Reveal(x) Cloud, allowing customers to secure workloads and gain control over hybrid applications. With ExtraHop Reveal(x) Cloud, organizations can adopt a cloud-first approach to protecting their hybrid attack surface. Reveal(x) Cloud provides inside-the-perimeter threat detection, investigation, and response across AWS workloads, allowing SecOps to track rogue instances and eliminate risks created by misconfigurations, insecure APIs, and unauthorized access.

We're also excited about our updates to our VMware NSX integration, which enables joint customers to automate policy enforcement in real time. The industry is focusing on zero-trust security and VMware NSX's microsegmentation capabilities are key to enabling those models. What's needed is a fluent understanding of what users, systems, and applications are saying to each other on the network, and this is what ExtraHop provides. Our platform performs real-time analysis of every transaction so that customers can know if their policies are actually working or not, and then we integrate with VMware NSX to automate remediation if the answer is "no."

VMblog:  Can you give readers a few reasons why your product or service is considered unique? 

ExtraHop:  The Software Defined Data Center and hybrid environments are built to be as dynamic as your business. How do you stay in control when your environment is constantly shifting? When so much activity happens in places where traditional monitoring systems are blind?  With ExtraHop, we've integrated with VMware to deliver on-demand visibility.

We see everything on both the physical and virtual networks in a way that hasn't been possible until now. Allowing you to eliminate blind spots and cut through the noise with real-time analytics and machine learning that deliver unprecedented visibility, definitive insights, and immediate answers across IT Operations.

VMblog:  Can you give VMblog readers a sneak peek as to what you will be showing off at your booth this year?  What should attendees expect to see and hear at your booth?

ExtraHop:  While the cloud has proven to be a force multiplier for business and Dev teams, the cloud dramatically expands the attack surface and exposes the organization to new and unknown risks. In order to keep up with the speed of cloud and avoid stalled migrations, under-resourced SecOps teams need complete visibility and control over their cloud workloads.

With ExtraHop Reveal(x) Cloud, enterprise organizations can adopt a cloud-first approach to protecting their hybrid attack surface, enabling Sec Ops teams to track rogue instances and eliminate risks created by misconfigurations, insecure APIs, and unauthorized access. The SaaS-based solution leverages Amazon VPC traffic mirroring to passively analyze network traffic and deploys instantly and without agents, delivering immediate asset discovery, real-time threat detection, and ML-powered response. Native integration with AWS tools, orchestration systems, and ticketing platforms allows users to limit tool sprawl while automating hybrid security settings and response workflows.

VMblog:  How does your company and product fit within the VMware ecosystem?

ExtraHop:  The Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) presents countless opportunities-but it also requires a radical re-thinking of how IT is delivered and how systems are monitored. With unprecedented amounts of data traveling across both physical and virtual environments, legacy NPM and APM tools are no longer sufficient. Virtualization further abstracts the changes occurring within the data center through micro-segmentation, software defined networking, and proliferation of virtual machines. This evolution makes complete IT control and visibility critical. 

ExtraHop + VMware make it easier to remain in control as an organization transitions into the software defined world. Only ExtraHop provides visibility across virtual, physical, and cloud infrastructure using real-time analytics and advanced machine learning to analyze every network transaction to cut through the noise, eliminate blind spots, and deliver concrete answers that enable businesses to act with confidence.

VMblog:  As a sponsor of the event, what are your thoughts about VMworld?

ExtraHop:  From the beginning, VMworld has been a standout event for the sheer diversity of roles across attendees. At most shows, you pretty much know the profile of the people attending. While VMworld certainly attracts plenty of virtualization experts and engineers, there's a whole ecosystem of people who have a role in managing and securing virtualized, cloud, and hybrid environments. The show is a great opportunity to get a 360-degree perspectives on the opportunities and challenges on the horizon, and understand how different groups are thinking about and approaching those challenges and opportunities.

VMblog:  What would you say to prospective attendees who are thinking about attending VMworld but aren't sure if it's worth it or not?

ExtraHop:  We'd encourage folks to attend VMworld for the same reasons we keep coming back. It's really a unique opportunity to understand from multiple perspectives how virtualization is being adopted, and the opportunities and challenges it's creating for different teams within the enterprise.

VMblog:  What do you think we need to do collectively as an ecosystem to strengthen the industry?

ExtraHop:  Virtualization and SDN has ushered in a new era of networking, but it's also upended traditional means of monitoring and managing networks and the applications and systems that run on them. Highly virtualized and dynamic environments outpace legacy monitoring solutions leading to a lack of visibility for these environments. Instrumenting all the systems is becoming more difficult due to device and service proliferation and the increasing trend towards microservices and containers. And the use of multiple niche or vendor proprietary tools can lead to visibility gaps, tool sprawl, and make it had to develop a cohesive monitoring strategy. This is true for not only network performance, but for network security as well.

In order to strengthen and accelerate the adoption of virtualized, software-defined, and cloud environments, enterprise organizations need to stop trying to retrofit legacy security and monitoring architectures on the new abstracted reality of the network. They also need to recognize that the network is anything but dead. It has evolved, to be sure, but in whatever form it takes, the network remains the connective fabric of the enterprise.

While enterprises need to look for cloud-native and virtual-native solutions, the vendors within this ecosystem need to develop integrations that support robust security and performance frameworks that combine detection, investigation, and automated response.

VMblog:  Attendees always enjoy a good trade show tchotchke.  Are you guys giving away anything special or interesting this year?

ExtraHop:  This year, ExtraHop is giving away a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 Wireless Headphones II. Stop by to be entered to win!