Cloud computing security is fundamental to the virtualization technology of the Agency

The UNDP virtualization technology requires effective security tools and best practice scenarios.

As new technologies and solutions evolve and are widely used by enterprises, it is imperative for IT staff to maintain information security. In the past, the information chief or other decision makers could store confidential information on a single entity server, and then restrict access rights. But with the advent of virtualization technology, today's security issues have become more complex, according to Joe Baguley of SC Magazine.

The Global Enterprise Server virtualization market will grow by 32% a year.

The approach of information protection used to be to place firewalls as far as possible around sensitive information. But today, businesses are virtualizing desktops and servers to achieve unlimited scalability to reduce IT costs and become more flexible, so the threat environment changes as well. The trend towards virtualization will not slow, TechNavio research predicts that until 2014, the Global Enterprise Server virtualization market will grow by 32% a year. One of the main drivers of this growth is the ability to reduce the cost of the underlying network architecture.

But information protection is still one of the priorities for any IT department, especially as many cyber hackers can circumvent legacy security tools, Baguley says.

When a company uses virtualization technology, it is no longer meaningful to protect entity components because important information is now being moved in a digital manner within a virtual host. Organizations should develop security policies for virtual machine management programs (HYPERVISOR) or virtualized environments between operating systems and hardware. Because security protection is already the responsibility of virtual machine management programs, not operating systems, Baguley added.

Advanced threats often require only one vulnerability to enter the virtual environment, Baguley asserts, which means that every machine within the architecture needs to install the latest and most immediate protection tools. Using information-centric policies to plan virtualization security protection, policymakers can make sensitive information more secure in the cloud and other virtual environments.

The main obstacle to implementing virtualization security protection is the lack of in-house expertise

Unfortunately, many companies today are not comfortable with the technologies they can't see or touch, so concerns about virtualization and cloud computing security tend to slow the progress of technology. According to a report from Kuppinger Cole, the main obstacle to implementing virtualization security protection is the lack of in-house expertise.

As more and more enterprises deploy cloud and desktop computers or servers for virtualization, it is important for IT personnel to know how to properly protect these environments. Education and training should be the core of the new technology process.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)