Asking the right questions about "virtualization security"

There are many vendors coming out of the closet about their virtualization strategy. New technology platforms always drive messaging around security - for example, we saw it with wireless and mobile devices in recent years.

I posted a set of 8 questions on the Burton Group blog that may be useful in tracking just what it means to be providing security in virtual environments. Here is an excerpt:

The only reason any of this matters is to assess the speed for which you need a security solution and the availability of solutions that support that need. There is nothing wrong with having a solution that is virtualization-agnostic, but it is useful to know how unique the solution actually is if it is a differentiator in your evaluation process. In addition, in the near-term security solutions should be able to leverage the characteristics of virtualization for beneficial features such as patching a VM that is not in service or isolating a host agent from the host it is monitoring. That is essentially the VMsafe story.

Read more here. Can you think of any questions I missed?

Comments

[shrdlu]

Muy useful, and succinct. Thanks, Pete!