Virtualization is moving into the mainstream with 50 percent of IT professionals using this technology, or planning to do so within the next 18 months, according to a survey conducted by e-mail research specialists, emedia.

However, the survey also found that over half (52 percent) of respondents believe that virtualization systems introduce some new security challenges. The main ones include consideration for patching and update (32 percent), guest-to-guest attacks (27 percent), and the addition of new host software (22 percent).

IT professionals believe they can overcome these threats by taking various safety measures such as staff training/improving understanding (51 percent), patching/updating/hardening servers (38 percent), using firewalls (30 percent), and separating networks/subnetting/routing (25 percent).

Interestingly, the later the implementation of the technology is scheduled for, the more apprehensive IT professionals seems to be. emedia's survey shows that 51 percent of current users think that virtualization poses some new risks, rising to 57 percent amongst those planning to use the new solution within the next 6 months and 66 percent amongst those adopting it within the next 6 to 18 months.

However, system vulnerability does not seem to be the main hurdle for non-adopters. Obstacles to virtualization expansion for non-users include the lack of a compelling business case for total cost of ownership and return on investment (20 percent), priority given to other network upgrade projects (19 percent), cost/budget constraints (18 percent), insufficient staff expertise (15 percent) and security (9 percent).

Read the original on Continuity Central, here.