Real Risks In A Virtualized World: How Virtualization Is Changing The Way We Manage, Assess, and Mitigate Risk

Abstract

A dramatic shift has stated to take place in the last decade that is having a pronounced impact on how organizations view information security. Large datacenters and small sensor rooms alike are being impacted by the development and growth of virtualization and the many benefits it provides. This essay will examine how hardware virtualization has changed the landscape of datacenter risk management and how organizations must adapt their security posture to those changes. As mainstream hypenisors like VMware ESXi, Citrix XenServer, and Microsoft Hyper-V become more affordable and easier to implement, their use in providing low-cost, high-utilization solutions is steadily becoming an industry standard, even for smaller shops. Organizations must understand how to assess, manage, and mitigate new types of risk unique to virtualization. By examining the technology behind virtualization, the risks associated with it, and the methods organizations can mitigate and minimize those risks, we will see that virtualization, when implemented properly, can provide a secure, highly beneficial technology on which datacenters can be built.