As large-scale IT and business events go, VMworld is definitely on the heavy end of the scale. Boasting everything from the newest innovations, the latest of the “new cool,” and, of course, the best parties—it’s no wonder that VMworld is one of the “must visit” events of the year.

So, what made this year different? Aside from the Amazon announcement—something that was seeded to the market last year—VMware has also now thrown its hat into the IT security ring. A move many saw coming, and perhaps many did not. But the reasoning behind it is the most telling, and perhaps the most chilling when considering the new cyber-threat landscape we live in.

Now, if you follow me at all on my blog posts, you may have noticed that I tend to cover the world of IT security more than other topics. But I can assure you, it’s not out of love for the topic. It’s a disdain for everything that represents what’s wrong with humanity. But I digress as, according to my wife, The Walking Dead is influencing me far too much these days … I just like to wear the leather vest with the wings because it’s cool, okay? But enough about me.

However, in all seriousness the need for constant monitoring of IT assets seems to be getting more and more complex—while also becoming more and more needed due to the proliferation of threats that continue to haunt us daily. So how does this pertain to VMware and AWS?

First, VMware is not just evolutionary, for all intents and purposes it’s revolutionary when it comes to how we now perceive modern computing. It’s a direct representation of the breaking down of physical and virtual barriers that once defined IT infrastructure.

Now, with the formal introduction of AWS services, it means that hybrid environments—though plentiful today—are about to become so commonplace that IT workloads of most kinds will be a split between on-premise and hosted cloud in a short space of time. To put this into perspective, think back a mere ten years ago when all things cloud related were considered too modern, too complicated and, more importantly, far too scary. Now I simply must ask, “How’s your Dropbox account treating you?” to prove just how commonplace cloud computing is.

So, with the massive push into the world of virtualization, the constant transfer of data from in-house to the world, there is a need for bigger and better security measures at all layers. And, in the wake of some of the scariest cyberattacks in history—Ukraine, I’m looking in your direction—VMware’s new AppDefense software has been purpose built to ensure that VMware’s core virtualization software is well protected from the all-too-nefarious world of malware and other threats.

And, to put this into perspective, with the majority of Fortune 500 companies already using VMware vSphere, AppDefense will be there to run ever-vigilant on virtual machines, ensuring that no bad guys get through the virtual doors.

So, in the end, I haven’t written this in my usual doomsday tone: malware and the like being the end of the world. But I am saying that The Walking Dead is not a TV show as much as it’s a training video—and maybe a good place for me to get fashion cues.