Does virtualisation hamper security in your organisation?

What’s not to like about server virtualisation? You can consolidate infrastructure to save money, stand up new servers quickly and without scrabbling for hardware budget, and generally improve the flexibility of your IT environment.

Past reader research studies, however, have highlighted some of the less desirable side effects of virtualising your server estate – VM sprawl, keeping dormant VMs properly patched and configured, backing up virtual landscapes, and so on.

In our latest survey of systems security and access, we are picking up on this and asking whether VM configuration, control and management challenges have an impact from a security perspective.

After all, if you don’t have a proper handle on which VMs exist, what they are used for and what their patch level is, that’s a bit of a security black hole. And what about VMs that actually contain data – how do you make sure security and privacy are protected when they are shut down then spun up again in a different context?

Some of the respondents in our survey so far have quite firm views on such things, but what’s your experience?

Let us know you thoughts on these and other matters by clicking here.