There are a few goals most companies have with virtualization:
* Ability to move VMs around to get optimal processing power.
* Better hardware utilization
* Faster scalability
* Identify security incidents, policy violations, fraudulent activities and operational problems.
* Optimize for performance
* Securing the hypervisor, the virtual machine and the virtualized network
* Understand the actions of others
Computer Environments
* In a private cloud, data from a confidential finance application might end up on the same hypervisor as something from sales.
* In a public cloud, it's possible your data could be sitting on the same server as that of your competitors.
A Few Tips
* Consider a public cloud, where you don't have any control at over who they hire to tend your data.
* Default settings for hypervisors should be inspected to make sure they are secure. If not configured, a hypervisor can easily become an attack point.
* Introduce virtualized infrastructure into existing change and configuration management programs.
* Make sure that patches are applied to protect against the latest vulnerabilities and that certificates are up to date.
* Monitor critical configuration files regularly.
