Companies are adopting virtualization technologies at a faster and faster rate. They are virtualizing servers, desktops, storage, networks. But one aspect of infrastructure has been lagging – very few companies address the growing demand for virtualized security.

Virtualized security is security technology that uses virtualization principles to create a flexible, logical security layer inside a virtualized data center. Because of the unique dynamic nature of a virtualized environment, traditional static security measures are often insufficient. Not only is it hard to manage static security devices next to a pool of dynamic virtual servers, but the security often gets in the way of the benefits of virtualization.

Encapsulation and portability of virtual machines free your virtual servers, allowing them to move from server to server. But if the security context can’t follow the servers, you’re forced to keep them stuck in place. Fortunately the virtualized security market is getting a lot more attention this year.

Up to this point, most virtual security offerings have been either virtual-appliance based or have deployed an agent inside a virtual machine. That gives them flexibility but also only limited access to virtual machine “internals.” A new solution from VMWare may change the table-stakes and inject momentum into the nascent virtual security industry. The recently announced VMSafe program will be a framework and API for virtual security services to interact with virtual machines and the hypervisor.

The API lets a virtual security tool inspect and filter all of a virtual machine’s memory, CPU, processes, storage and network traffic. That gives virtual security solutions the ability to act on a virtual machine while maintaining complete isolation from any nasty stuff running inside. Unlike agent-based solutions that run on the operating system and can be disabled or compromised by malware, virtual security solutions would lie beyond the reach of the operating system.

Virtual security technologies have two effects. In the short term, they allow companies to overcome the difficulties of securing a virtual environment. Security engineers can use virtual security to build solutions that support virtual servers without compromising on important virtualization features such as resource-pooling and live migration (VMotion, XenMotion etc.) of virtual machines. In the longer term, virtual security can use the principles of virtualization to take security to a whole new level.

Whitepapers

• Advancing the Economics of Networking
• Enterprise Data Center Network Reference Architecture
• Implementing HA at the Enterprise Data Center Edge to Connect to a Large Number of Branch Offices
• File Integrity Monitoring: Secure Your Virtual and Physical IT Environments
• 6 Simple Steps to Disaster Recovery Planning
• PRICING STUDY: GROUNDWORK OPEN SOURCE VS. HP SOFTWARE

View more DATA CENTER whitepapers

Webcasts

• PoE Plus: Impact on the PoE Market
• Creating a high performance workplace with wireless networking
• Harnessing the power of communications to increase workplace performance
• Making data centers the IT strategic focus
• Protecting assets and employees with IP Video Surveillance
• Stay out of the headlines: Detecting and preventing network intrusions

View more DATA CENTER webcasts

Special Reports

• How to lower software costs, complexity
• IT Buyer's Guide To: Data backup and Replication
• Bringing IT Operations Management to Open Source and Beyond
• Data Centers: At the center of the action
• Executive Guide: Virtualization Reality Check
• Executive Guide: Storage Heats Up

View more DATA CENTER special reports