Virtualization Forays into New Territory

As companies continue to benefit from virtualizing their infrastructure, dramatically cutting costs, increasing efficiency and ramping up deployment time, security is a major issue that must not be forgotten. Although many people understand the concept of virtualization, what is full virtualization?

According to a hot off the press whitepaper just released by Kasperksy titled, “Security for Virtualization,” within full virtualization, one or more operating systems (OS) and their applications run on top of a virtual hardware, in a scenario in which each acts as a guest on the host and are managed by a hypervisor, which controls the flow of instructions between the guests and the physical hardware.

Just because an environment is now fully virtualized doesn’t mean these machines don’t have to be protected. In fact, “if these tools are absent, the incumbent anti-malware detection engine should be the best available to compensate for the lack of additional protection layers,” the paper added. “Sometimes critical systems also require agent-based anti-malware applications. This creates a mixture of both protection methods that must be maintained, increasing administrative costs.”

When teaming with this virtualization provider, however, users can increase visibility, scalability and flexibility significantly. The company offers a platform allowing IT administrators to benefit from a single-pane view of all protected machines – Kaspersky Security Center 9.0 (with Kaspersky Security for Virtualization vCenter integration) – which gives administrators ways to closely analyze VMware management tools, easily maintain and manage vital security operations so they can make quick decisions regarding remediation, diagnostics or forensics.

According to Forrester Research (News - Alert), an analyst firm, “Given the converged nature of virtual environments, security incidents can result in significant damage; therefore, it is critical that security professionals redouble their efforts and make securing their virtual infrastructure a priority.”

Is your company being left in the dust because you are afraid that if you head into a virtualized environment you will be left vulnerable to cyber attacks? Think again, as virtualization is enabling companies to decrease costs while upping the ante on protection once and for all.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.

Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.