Vali Cyber + VMware: Zero Trust Protection from Workload to Hypervisor for Agencies Modernizing on VCF
Federal civilian agencies and DoD components are modernizing infrastructure with VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) to support hybrid cloud, Zero Trust, and mission-critical workloads under OMB M-22-09, the DoD Zero Trust Strategy, and EO 14028. While VCF delivers built-in protections for virtual machines and applications, adversaries are increasingly targeting the hypervisor itself. If the hypervisor is compromised, every Zero Trust policy enforced inside the guest is bypassed, and every workload it supports is at risk.
Together, VMware VCF and Vali Cyber’s ZeroLock®—built FIPS-ready on FIPS 140-3 validated cryptographic modules—deliver full-stack security from workload to hypervisor. The joint solution combines VMware’s lifecycle, segmentation, and recovery capabilities with ZeroLock’s preemptive runtime protection and behavioral enforcement, extending Zero Trust principles down to the virtualization layer that previously operated on implicit trust.
What unique challenges does this solve?
- Hypervisor Blind Spot: While VCF protections focus on guest workloads, ZeroLock delivers runtime behavioral protection directly on ESXi. This allows for real-time prevention of unauthorized commands and configuration changes.
- Limits of Reactive Security: Agencies face risk of exposure during the gap between exploitation in the wild and remediation. ZeroLock adds preemptive protection, defending against zero-day and N-day attacks before patches are available, tested, or deployed.
- Modern Ransomware Attacks: Native ESXi controls do not stop attacks that abuse built-in interpreters and utilities such as Python, shell, and OpenSSL. ZeroLock prevents these attacks in real time, without relying on prior knowledge of the malware.
How does this advance government outcomes and mandates?
- Mission Impact: Agencies can prevent outages, data loss, and continuity-of-operations failures caused by hypervisor-level ransomware, sustain mission-critical workloads through active intrusion attempts, and reduce dependence on costly clean-room recovery environments.
- Technical Strength: ZeroLock adds behavioral runtime enforcement at the hypervisor layer and integrates with existing VMware tooling, vCenter workflows, and SIEM pipelines without disrupting accredited operations.
- Security and Trust: ZeroLock is FIPS-ready, built on FIPS 140-3 validated cryptographic modules to meet federal encryption requirements. The combined solution operationalizes NIST SP 800-207 Zero Trust Architecture and supports control families across NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 (AC, AU, CM, SI), FedRAMP High baselines, DISA STIG alignment for ESXi, and CMMC Level 2 practices—adding the runtime visibility, behavioral enforcement, and forensic audit evidence that configuration-based compliance alone cannot provide.
These combined features help support government priorities such as Zero Trust, cloud modernization, AI adoption, and compliance and accreditation.
Why is the partnership stronger than standalone offerings?
VMware VCF builds the foundation for modern government infrastructure. ZeroLock ensures that foundation cannot be compromised. Together, they deliver a layered, defense-in-depth architecture that aligns with NIST SP 800-207 Zero Trust principles and supports the cryptographic requirements federal accreditation demands.
VCF and ZeroLock deliver FIPS-ready, Zero Trust-aligned coverage from workload to hypervisor, preemptive protection against modern nation-state and ransomware techniques, and the audit evidence that accelerates accreditation and sustains mission resilience.