Jul 27, 2010—Ask Matt Series – Security in a Virtualized World

by Matt Riley, CIO of Gladiator Technology

An excerpt from the July/2010 issue of the Gladiator newsletter, The Shield –

Question: What are some of the security risks that I should be concerned about in a virtualized environment?

Answer: VM, VMotion, “spin” up, Hypervisor, Guest, Host, Hyper-V, Snapshot – these are terms associated with virtualization. The modern datacenter has a new look these days; there are less physical systems and more virtual systems. Companies are realizing the benefits of virtualization, such as enhanced business resiliency, optimal utilization of computer resources, reduced IT infrastructure footprint, and reduced power consumption. Quite often, however, when companies make the decision to transition to virtualization, they often overlook the most important thing, SECURITY! Through 2012, 60 percent of virtualized servers will be less secure than the physical servers they replace, according to Gartner. Virtualization introduces some new security risks that you, as an organization, need to consider. I’m going to discuss some of these risks and some mitigating steps you can take to better secure your virtualized environment. (continued)

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