Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2017.  Read them in this 9th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

Contributed by Vitaly Mzokov, Solution Business Lead, Data Center & Virtualization Security at Kaspersky Lab

Integration, Security for the Hybrid Cloud, Global Cyberattacks

Security for virtualization: more focus on integration

Considering security solutions for VDI and virtualized servers, I predict that in the next year enterprises will pay more attention to the smooth integration between various systems instead of the thorough examination of the product features under a microscope. Security solutions that can be integrated into the virtualization infrastructure at a sufficient level to detect cyber-attacks in early stages, and those that can deliver this malicious activity information to the components of the corporate environment to make quick decisions that allow the organization to isolate and analyze the threat, will be what businesses choose in 2017 over old-school security systems. 

Corporations will spend more on protection of the hybrid cloud

An already emerging trend that will definitely gain more importance in the next five years is transition from private to hybrid clouds. The corporate environments will be composed of private IT infrastructure and of public cloud infrastructure. Both parts will be connected through the protected communication channels - with the use of encryption among other tools - and managed from a unified console (or the control center). In 2017, corporations will have more systems that can and should be taken outside the corporate perimeter and placed closer to the customer. Public cloud environment make it easy to do this.

I think that in 2020 the growth of public cloud infrastructure, and accordingly, the costs of the infrastructure and security solutions for it will increase by 2.5-3 times, compared to what the industry analysts demonstrated this year.

Global players will be under attacks

It's not only that global companies use or do not use virtualization (in fact, more than 75 percent of businesses have been virtualized), but the question is whether they are able to watch all the processes occurring in the infrastructure with regard to the information security.

Even if they can, the interactions between different systems will complicate the process. Therefore, unfortunately, the news headlines like "one billion accounts were withdrawn from Yahoo" is just the beginning of what businesses will face. In the future, we will see more and more of these types of breaches because of the large number of connections between, for example, Yahoo and other services that the users themselves set up. This means that more and more systems will be in the high risk zone in the next year. 

##

About the Author