Chiu adds that HyTrust is also looking to develop policy-based management products for -based and perhaps HyperV in the future.

HyTrust was co-founded with four partners in October 2007. In addition to Chiu (formerly in sales and business development at Cemaphore Systems and MailFrontier, later acquired by SonicWall) the partners include Renata Budko, vice president of marketing, Boris Strongin, president of engineering and Boris Belov, member of the technical staff.

HyTrust announced it has received $5.5 million in venture-capital funding from Trident Capital and .

The HyTrust Appliance 1.0 starts at $3,000 for the virtual appliance form and $7,800 for the physical appliance.

At the end of April, HyTrust plans to introduce what it calls the HyTrust Communities version as a free version for small to midsize businesses with as many as three ESX hosts.