With many companies looking to adopt the technology, virtualization security is increasingly gaining attention, according to a recent report from Network World.
One case highlighted by the technology news provider was that of the New Mexico Human Services Department. The government agency is just about 100 percent virtualized, systems group supervisor Gurusimran Khalsa told Network World, and security is a top priority.
That's because the organization suffered a data security incident so severe that several employees were fired. Aiming to avoid a similar situation today, the human services department is sure to lock down virtual environments.
The Santa Fe-based organization now employs two-factor authentication to gain access to virtual servers, as well as "air gaps" that are used to protect specific sets of sensitive data. A firewall has also been set up to keep virtual servers apart.
Wisconsin-based law firm Rausch, Sturm, Israel, Enerson & Hornik was also highlighted in the Network World report. Currently about 80 percent virtualized, the firm also had security concerns when first starting out.
Specifically, the organization was worried about credit card data housed in virtual environments. Though many of the numbers are defunct, the law firm's bank and financial institution clients said the data still needed to be secure under Payment Card Industry standards.
To do so, the law firm has deployed encryption for the data housed on its virtual machines.
Virtualization is a technology all companies should be at least exploring, according to a CIO magazine report published earlier this month. Through innovation, the report stated, the technology has moved from focusing mainly on relatively small machines to much larger ones capable of handling heavy workloads. And more improvements could be in store as adoption of virtualization grows, according to CIO.
