Go Virtual, Stay Secure

According to leading analysts, the virtualization is among the top 10 promising enterprise information technologies. It helps reduce capital and operation expenses due to hardware consolidation, space utilization efficiency, power saving, etc. Companies that have implemented virtualization, report their IT infrastructure TCO decreased by up to 50 percent.

Typically, companies deploy virtualization seeking increased performance, not security. Thus, information security concerns are often afterthoughts.

“Virtualization is not inherently insecure. However, most virtualized workloads are being deployed insecurely. The latter is a result of the immaturity of tools and processes and the limited training of staff, resellers and consultants.”

Gartner, January 2010

Virtualized systems can be made more secure than their physical counterparts. Virtualization makes it possible isolate applications and/or entire machines that process business-sensitive data. Virtual environment involves less hardware, so the physical security issue becomes simpler.

However, all comes with a price. Virtualization brings in its specific information security risks. These should be addressed before you can leverage the new technology, especially when a company is subject to specific external regulations.

Unfortunately, the familiar solutions and approaches aren’t always up to the job. What you need is specialized, virtualization-aware solutions to bring the "virtual world" in line with the rest of your environment.