Systems Security
1.6 Purpose of Virtualization Technology
The idea behind section 1.6 is to be aware and able to express what virtualization is, what it does, and the security positives and negatives that it brings.
The use of virtualization technology, most notably virtual machines, is extremely popular today. It involves the process of allocating and presenting the physical resources of one type of computer hardware and then using it in multiple-operating system instances. Basically, if you opt to use virtualization technology, you can get rid of the common one server, one application mindset and are able to run and control numerous virtual machines on one single physical machine. However, these virtual machines will appear to be entirely separate entities. Though the technology may seem new, it has been around since 1972, when IMB offered a way to segment the VM/370 OS resources. Virtualization can also be used on servers, where a single server can host many different logical machines.
You’ll also want to focus on virtualization from the security point of view. When using virtual machines, you can easily test different security tools and applications before applying them to your ‘real’ network. This type of technology is great when you’re in the developing and testing part of creating a secure network.
On the flip side, virtualization also poses as a security threat. If someone were to ever gain access to the system, they have access to not everything just on the physical machine, but the virtual machines as well. However, attacks on virtual machines are rarely heard of, though the technology is becoming more and more widespread, which may push some to target them.
Today, even though cloud computing has made its way into the spot-light, virtualization technology still has the stronghold. Moving away from virtual computers, people are looking towards new virtualization technologies including virtual security, virtual desktops, virtual encryption, virtual storage, and many other things.
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