Best antivirus for VMware virtual machines [2020 Guide]
Are you a VMware user worried about what choice of antivirus you should use? Windows Report has compiled the best antivirus programs for VMware.
VMware is a virtualization and cloud computing software provider located in Palo Alto, California. It was founded in 1998 by Dell Technologies.
Meanwhile, virtualization technologies of VMware are based on its bare-metal hypervisor ESX/ ESXi in x86 architecture. A hypervisor is usually installed on the physical server to enable multiple virtual machines (VMs) to run on the same physical server.
Multiple Operating Systems can run on one physical server because each VM can run its own individual OS. VMs on the same physical server always share resources, such as networking and RAM.
However, VMware products include networking virtualization, software-defined data center software, security management tools and storage software. In addition, it pools disk space from several ESXi hosts and provisions it through smart policies, such as thin provisioning protection limits and erasure coding.
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Bullguard (suggested)
The BullGuard solution combines traditional signature-based protection with behavioral detection to detect and fight malware.
It is compatible with virtual machines and supports all major operating systems, providing comprehensive but hyper-easy management through the centralized cloud portal.
Here are its main features:
- Anti-spam filtering
- Vulnerability scanner
- Free backup to protect your files in case of system failure
- Automatic performance optimization and more
Why Bullguard?
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Bitdefender
GravityZone is a native virtualization and cloud solution designed to provide complete security services for virtual machines (among others).
Here are its main features:
- Protection against malware on all virtual machines
- Compatible with VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (with KVM), etc.
- Uses vShield Endpoint for deployment
- Virtual machines do not integrate local virus scanning engines and are permanently protected by a security server
- Latency and vulnerability during Windows boot are removed
- Temporary virtual machines are automatically protected
World's best antivirus
- Great price plan
- VPN included
- Best Windows compatibility
- Awesome customer support
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Kaspersky (suggested)
This software provides great security for Virtualization and also offers Protection to your virtual infrastructure. It is compatible with the Windows OS. It has everything you would need in a suite and its components are very effective.- Read Also: 5 best antivirus for gaming PCs
Features/Pro:
- Anti-malware protection and IDS/IPS for virtual servers and VDI
- Security for VMware, Citrix, Microsoft and KVM platforms
- Powerful yet lightweight security for XenDesktop and Horizon
- Works in harness with your infrastructure, empowering its capabilities
- Perfectly balanced protection with no impact on performance
- Agentless security integrated with VMware NSX
- Anti-malware for any virtual platform
- Advanced network protection & IDS/IPS
- Lightweight security for Windows and Linux
- For Windows Servers in Full and Server Core Modes
- Multi-layered security for VDI environments
- Avoid Resource Duplication
- Shared Cache
- Integration Server for better efficiency
- Central management console
- Cloud-assisted security
Cons:
- Mediocre scores in hands-on malware protection tests.
- It has high RAM uses.
- It slows down the operating system.
- Database update is slow.
  – Download Kaspersky antivirus from the official site
Essential for Windows
- Blocking ransomware, cryptolockers & more
- Preventing cryptomining malware infections
- Real-time protection
- Read Also: 5 best antivirus for gaming PCs
