With the cost benefits being so great, virtualization is taking off and businesses are investing resources to bring this great tool on board. Due to the fact that virtualization has become an indispensable part of most corporations and other organizations, security has also become a major player. As a result, several solutions have emerged to step in and help out.
Virtualization security plays an important role in virtual computing, which is mostly common sense. Essentially, you can’t, or shouldn’t, use virtualization tools without some kind of security platform. The risks are just too great, especially for companies and organizations that are utilizing virtual tools to present and send sensitive information.
The reason virtual security is so crucial is the fact that virtualization provides a central location to manage and control virtual machines, giving the opposing players, (Bad Actors) a greater desire to threaten this capability within your company.
Some of the main benefits of using security tools for virtualized applications include:
- Simple business continuity
- Disaster recovery
- One main point of control over several different systems
- As well as other auditing and logging capabilities for bigger infrastructures.
There are several other benefits, but the point of this post is to emphasis the great need for advancements in the virtualization security arena. We have come far, but there is still much to improve upon and accomplish in this space. There are several players in this space now and it will continue to grow, but it’s important that organizations are made aware of the current risks involved with such technology.
Some specific areas of virtualization that are in need of additional security developments are: storage networking,presentation virtualization, virtualization backup, desktop virtualization, cloud computing, and data center virtualization, to name a few.
The truth is that major corporations are going to be far more hesitant to adapt this technology (if they haven’t already) if there is no component of security attached with it. This is true for any new technological development that allows, or requires, sensitive information to be stored, sent, and viewed virtually.
As previously mentioned, however, there are currently some good solutions out there to help protect important information. There are also many good security tips you can follow that will aid the process of making your information more secure. Some of these tips include installing a good firewall, ensuring that server management is kept up on, and overall just making sure your IT department is up to speed with everything in the virtualization world.
Learn more about virtualization technology, including virtualization security, at The Virtualization Practice.