Servers use only a small percentage of their capacities to store documents or run applications. Virtualization technology allows multiple applications to run side by side on the same machine. that allows companies to consolidate as many as 20 servers into one machine that could be running databases, e-commerce applications, and a Web server simultaneously.

The return on investment is clear just from hardware costs and lower electrical costs (an estimated 2.5 percent of all U.S. potential consumption is for info centers). At the same day, virtualization allows new servers to be put into a production environment very quickly, helping to realize savings on day and manpower.

But virtualized environments face the same threats as physical environments, plus some rare challenges. Jason Yuan, group manager for product management at protection firm McAfee, pointed out that companies looking to realize cost savings by storing info virtually need to be aware of these risks.

Where the Trouble Lies

“One

of the benefits of virtualization is being able to create a disaster-recovery backup,” Yuan said. In fact, creating a backup can be done with nothing more than a right-click of the mouse. The backup image is typically stored offline on network-attached storage (NAS) or a storage-area network (SAN) until it’s needed, next it’s plugged directly into the production environment. That’s where trouble lies.

“On the day of the backup there might not be a vulnerability, but six months later there may be some vulnerability that was uncovered in that operating environment or the applications that are running,” Yuan explained. whether that happens, the network becomes attackable the moment it’s brought online. Yuan has seen it happen; a backup that had a vulnerability that didn’t exist three months earlier was brought online, and was immediately infected by a worm that shut down thousands of machines.

“Virtualization requires the same defense as…

Orginal post by Top Tech News