UK IT managers see virtualisation as the way to go but still have qualms about securing their data, according to an IP Expo survey.
The survey showed that 88 percent of the sample rated data security as a key objective and spending priority for 2011. This was closely followed by virtualisation which was identified as a priority among 85.8 percent of respondents.
The result demonstrates the strength of the IT managers’ drive to adopt virtualisation but concerns about its security and the ability to protect sensitive data also reared its head. Just over half of them believed that the roll-out of cloud technologies like virtualisation will need to wait until security guarantees can be demonstrated.
Eight out of 10 respondents said that the technology will require a revision of enterprise security tools and procedures. That said, about the same number saw that it would improve the overall security of business data ultimately.
Despite these worries, it was not all bad news for virtualisation vendors. Only three percent of respondents believed that security issues would stop their business from adopting any measure of virtualisation.
Adam Malik, content director for Imago Techmedia commented, “The data security issues surrounding virtualisation are something the entire IT industry is coming together to address. The priority is to make sure that this ground breaking technology can meet the needs of companies of all sizes as well as some of the UK’s highest risk legal and financial companies.”
Some IT managers are already seeing the benefits of virtualisation. Lionel Wilson, IS Director of the Woodland Trust, has almost completed an updating of his IT infrastructure. A reduction of the environmental impact of the Trust’s systems was a key driver but improved hardware utilisation and cost savings also came into play.
Wilson said, “We’re using Microsoft Windows 2008 R2, Hyper-V and Dell’s Blade architecture. Energy use on these new systems fell by over 90 percent. Additionally the implementation of Remote Desktop Services over Sunray has allowed us to considerably reduce power use on our clients by over 95 percent whilst also improving user availability and experience.”
IP Expo 2010 takes place at Earls Court 2, London, on 20-21 October
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It’s an interesting point that the top two spending priorities for IT managers are data security and virtualization as the two subjects are more related than seems at first blush. Virtualization is a very cost effective technology, but like any new technology, requires a re-examination of the vulnerability points that are exposed and the appropriate way to secure them. As my company demonstrated recently http://bit.ly/aJLpnJ , the ESX COS console provides a completely new attack surface to a user with appropriate credentials. As IT managers deploy virtualization in their environments, they need to be additionally aware of this new attack surface and apply appropriate tools and process to secure them.
Indeed, as the world moves toward Cloud computing and the revolutionary changes it brings for IT efficiency, flexibility and cost, IT managers needs to be even more aware of the secure risk involved and the tools and processes required to secure them. A secure multi-tenancy cloud environment is not the impossible dream as some might propose. It will however take a thoughtful approach, tool set and process to implement.