Virtualization heralds a brave new world of security. Here are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to securing a virtual infrastructure. Within a short time, virtualization technology has moved from the labs of software testers and tinkerers into the mainstream of information technology. Microsoft, VMware, Citrix and other virtualization vendors are improving their technologies, and most companies have either started deploying virtual servers or are close to doing so.

One common challenge in maintaining virtualized environments is security. While many standard security guidelines apply to physical and virtual machines (VMs) alike, virtualization does present some unique security challenges. Here are some things to consider when creating a secure virtual IT infrastructure.

Of Hosts and Guests

Virtual security involves securing both the host and all VMs. Most of today's virtualization products use a specialized driver, called a hypervisor, to emulate the physical devices for each VM. Depending on the VM technology, the hypervisor may run in a regular operating system or in a minimal, special-purpose OS that's designed to run just the hypervisor. Microsoft's Hyper-V runs under Windows Server 2008 and thus requires a full operating system on the host computer. When a virtualization solution runs on a computer with a regular operating system, you should secure the host computer the same way you would secure any other server.