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Posted on November 29th, 2011 in Current News, Virtualization by Simply Security | Be the first to comment | Tags: virtualization

Virtualization security is posing problems for companies.

Virtualization has been lauded as an important piece of the future of enterprise computing, as companies seek out innovative means for dealing with the data boom of recent years. With the technology, companies maximize their data storage space to ensure they retain all the information necessary for short- and long-term operations.

However, as a new report can attest, it’s imperative that IT departments keep data security considerations in mind when deploying virtual machines. Failing to do so may result in data loss, or leave the company vulnerable to an outside attack.

According the respondents of a recent poll from data management solutions provider Kroll Ontrack, data loss within virtual environments has spiked 140 percent this year compared to 2010. That was evidenced by the 65 percent of respondents who said they frequently suffer a data security incident within their virtual environment.

Among respondents, 53 percent said they have suffered five data loss incidents pertaining to virtualization in the past year. Another 12 percent have experienced more than five, the report found.

Given that virtualization as a technology remains in its infancy, these incidents could be the result of companies’ relative unfamiliarity with such environments. However, that may soon change as more companies move forward in their efforts to deploy virtualization.

According to a poll released recently by enterprise risk consultancy Protiviti, virtualization was found to be among the top priorities for chief information officers during the next 12 months. It joined data security, cloud computing and social media integration, among others, on the list of top technologies.

Furthermore, small- and medium-sized businesses are jumping on the technology’s bandwagon. Though adoption has been relatively slow to this point, that may soon change as the 2011 Small Business Virtualization Poll found that 70 percent of SMBs are interested in the technology, InformationWeek reported. Just 10 percent have already completed a deployment.

According to the Kroll Ontrack report, companies currently utilizing virtualization should implement data protection measures to prevent common occurrences of loss, which include file system corruption, deleted virtual machines and internal virtual disk corruption, among others.

Despite the findings of the Kroll study, experts have also said that virtualization can be utilized to promote data security for mobile devices. With the technology, according to a recent ZDNet blog post, companies can ensure that enterprise and personal data remain separate on employee-owned smartphones and tablets.

Virtualization Security News from SimplySecurity.com by Trend Micro