As one indication of how important virtualization has become to enterprise IT strategies, VMworld has grown into a sprawling tech trade show seemingly in defiance of the economic downturn that’s already claimed plenty of similar events.
But even as CIOs seek to learn how they can leverage virtualization to cut down on IT costs, many also remain aware that doing so could open their businesses to new forms of threats.
At least, that’s been the perennial worry when it comes to virtualization, software-as-a-service and cloud computing in general. DevX takes a look at the state of security in enterprise virtualization, the potential dangers, and what can be done to mitigate the risk.
Chris Wolf, an analyst at Gartner, said customers need to be more aware. They should know that hardware can affect the performance and security of a virtual machine, and they should ask tough questions of anti-virus vendors, especially if those vendors are redesigning their products to be virtual.
“Ask specific questions — what can you do on my product?” Wolf said. “Each hypervisor has different capabilities, and the ecosystem (security) vendors can’t do everything they say.”