Virtualization and cloud computing security divide security experts and it

Does migrating to virtualization and cloud computing simplify network security or complicate it? When it comes to the problem of 2,100 it elites from 27 countries, their reactions are mixed, which suggests that there are different approaches to security within the enterprise.

Nearly one-third of companies see virtualization and cloud computing as adding to security difficulties, while another one-third think the difference is small and the remaining one-third means simplifying security maintenance, according to a report on the 2010 Corporate Security Survey-global data. The telephone survey was conducted last month by applied research company, on behalf of Symantec, which involved 120 issues related to technology use and cyber attacks-most of the respondents used Microsoft's Windows operating system.

As for the security implications of virtualization and cloud computing, respondents were very different, and to explain the phenomenon, Symantec Strategic technology director Matthew Steele said the best way to grasp the answers was to understand whether respondents had a real background in security knowledge, and if so, the answer was relevant. But if the respondents are concerned with IT operations, they will think about these issues from the perspective of it optimization. As for those that are centered, they are often doped with budgetary considerations. As long as the enterprise is undisturbed, continue to operate, there is no problem.

Although the industry generally believes that endpoint virtualization is less than server-based virtualization, but 8% of respondents said they had deployed the former, another 16% were in the process of deployment, and 9% were in the experimental phase, 26% had planned to perform endpoint virtualization, and 25% were in the early stages of the discussion, Still, 16% of respondents said they were not considered.

On the issue of "endpoint virtualization is simplifying/increasing your difficulty in network security", respondents disagreed, "simplified", "increased difficulty" and "no difference" accounted for one-third.

The survey showed that half of the company's annual security budget for 2010 was 600,000 dollars, a 11% increase from 2009, and an additional 11% per cent on this basis by 2011. Although the budget has increased, the respondents from banks, health care, telecoms and local or federal government departments say it is hard to find and retain security experts.

These companies have an average of 120 employees working on it, and companies with a scale of 5000 may even arrange more than 200 employees. But these are still not enough, and 51% of respondents think finding qualified job seekers is a tricky problem.

The lack of expertise is the driving force for all seeking out outsourced services, including the security management services used by half of the enterprises. However, only half of these companies are genuinely satisfied with outsourcing, even if they have considered extending it to software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and architecture as a service (IaaS). Symantec defines these three as the result of the evolution of the concept of cloud computing from Google's application to sophisticated hardware and pay-as-you-go operating systems.

In fact, 40% of respondents said their companies are currently using cloud-related apps--only 40% of them are more difficult to prevent or respond to data loss under the company's cloud strategy framework.

In answer to the question "Your cloud strategy increases/reduces the risk of data loss", 38% of respondents chose to "increase" and the remainder chose "reduce" or "no difference". The scale is the same as the problem with the virtualization policy.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)