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The scary side of virtualization

Written by Robert L. Mitchell Wednesday, 11 August 2010 00:00

After pushing forward with server virtualization, some IT executives are rethinking the security implications

During a roundtable discussion at the Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders conference in March, one CIO stood up to express his uneasiness about the security of a virtual infrastructure that has subsumed more than half of his company's production servers. In short order, two other IT executives chimed in with their own nagging worries.

None of the executives in that room wanted to admit on the record that they feel vulnerable, but Jai Chanani, senior director of technical services and architecture at Plano Texas-based retailer Rent-a-Center Inc., feels their pain. "One of my biggest fears is the ability to steal [virtual servers]," he says. His team has about 200 VMware ESX and XenServer virtual servers operating as file, print and, in some cases, application servers. But, for security reasons, his shop doesn't use virtualization for the company's ERP system, databases or e-mail.

Michael Israel, CIO at amusement park operator Six Flags Inc. in Grand Prairie, Texas, voices a different concern. To him, the most unnerving scenario is the idea of a rogue administrator moving virtual servers from a secure network segment onto physical hosts in an unsecured segment, or creating new, undocumented, unlicensed and unpatched virtual servers. "The biggest concern I have is the renegade side of it. The last thing I want is 25 servers out there... that I don't know exist," he says.

By Robert L. Mitchell for computerworld

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Author of this article: Robert L. Mitchell

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