Last year I had the opportunity to attend my first VMworld. It was there that VMware announced their new product offering AppDefense. It has now been over a year since AppDefense was released. This year at VMworld, VMware announced vSphere Platinum – a licensing package which includes both vSphere Enterprise Plus and AppDefense licensing. Also available exclusively with the vSphere Platinum package is the vCenter Server plugin for AppDefense which allows vSphere Administrators to see AppDefense-related context directly from vCenter Server. Check out Adam Eckerle’s (Twitter) Under the Hood – vSphere Platinum post at about mid-way through for some more details there.

The messaging from VMware has been made clear over the last several releases of vSphere – build a better security posture directly into the product. So much so that the vSphere Hardening Guide has been renamed to the vSphere Security Configuration Guide. In my opinion, AppDefense is the next step for VMware to deliver security to the datacenter. The vSphere product itself is more secure than ever and the time has come to use that secure platform to help customers enhance their security posture. This can be delivered through AppDefense.

Since the release of the product, I’ve followed along pretty closely to see what traction the product gets in the #vCommunity. To date, I haven’t seen much, unfortunately. When I search online for blog posts from community members, I find announcement-related content and thoughts about how game-changing AppDefense will be for data center security (and they’re not wrong, in my opinion!). I have yet to see much of a breakdown of the product or any walkthroughs from members of the #vCommunity. What I’ve found instead has been primarily support of the product directly from VMware and this lab in the Hands-on Labs. (It took an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to link directly to that lab.)

Now to get to the purpose of this post: For #Blogtober2018 (read more about that journey here), I intend to release the bulk of a blog series that focuses on VMware AppDefense! Here are the posts that you can expect to see as part of the series:

• Blog Series Announcement: VMware AppDefense (this post)
• What is VMware AppDefense? – From the Eyes of a vSphere Admin
• Installing and Configuring VMware AppDefense
  • How-to: Install VMware AppDefense Appliance 
  • How-to: Install VMware AppDefense Guest Module
  • How-to: Install VMware AppDefense Host Module
• Creating a VMware AppDefense Scope and Identifying Services
• Remediation Actions in VMware AppDefense
• Currently Available Integrations for VMware AppDefense

I’m really excited to write this series! This will be the first time this blog focuses on something relatively new and goes a bit deeper than usual (hopefully?). Better yet, this opportunity should help me better understand the product and how I talk about it.

Truthfully, I’m a little nervous about writing it… enough so that I reached out to and received encouragement from someone that I trust (you know who you are, thanks!). My concerns are mostly around whether VMware will object to the content or help me shape it/correct errors. That’s quickly followed by wondering whether the #vCommunity will find it valuable or too shallow to glean any knowledge from. I’m writing the series as much for the #vCommunity as I am for myself. Feedback is welcome!

Stay tuned for the next post where I review what exactly VMware AppDefense is and what it does.