IT security is a hot topic, and in the virtualization world, there is no difference.  Security is hot!

BlueLane and Nemertes Research have created this research report: "Securing Virtualized Infrastructure".  Read this groundbreaking report before you virtualize production environments.

Data centers have undergone tremendous transformation in the past five years. Virtualization has changed the architecture for servers, storage and networks. IT organizations are using management and provisioning automation to reduce operational cost, and increase responsiveness to business demands. But security is becoming more and more challenging. While virtualization has impacted every part of IT, security lags. As a result, most security products today do not easily support a virtualized infrastructure. Next generation security products are emerging however. Implemented as virtual software appliances or as virtual shields, they can provide security in a pool of virtual servers, regardless of operating system or application. Data center architects and security architects need to carefully choose security products that support -- and not subvert -- their data center virtualization strategies.

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Conclusions and Recommendations

Business demands are driving tremendous transformation in the data center. Servers, storage and networking technologies have been transformed through virtualization. Meanwhile however, security virtualization has been lagging. As a result it has become more and more challenging for security architects to support these new virtualized data center architectures with static security devices. A newly emerging security paradigm, more akin to “shields” than “walls,” consists of virtual security appliances that can be dynamically provisioned along side virtual servers. This new security model allows each virtual server in a pool to be protected both from the outside world and from other servers in the pool. As data centers continue to move towards on-demand computing through much broader adoption of virtualization, security must keep pace. Security architects need to carefully select products that are
supportive of virtualized infrastructures. After all you would not want your security strategy undermining your data center and business strategy.

Read it, here.