As we all know by now, virtualization reduces the amount of hardware and personnel needed to support your company’s IT operations. However, there are inherent security risks that must be addressed before virtualization can make your business more efficient and effective. Read on to learn more about virtualization security best practices, including: assessing your weak points; implementing security software; re-assessing your exposures on a regular basis.

Assess Your Weak Points

When you transition to a virtual IT infrastructure, you may be creating security risks that didn’t previously exist within your organization. This includes passwords, or other forms or user authentication, being exposed to hackers on the Internet and insufficient firewalls. While copying your previous IT policies over to your new system is a start, you must perform high-level and detailed risk assessments to identify your weak points and develop security protocols.

Implement Security Software

The type of security software that you need to implement depends on the sensitivity of the information you’re trying to protect, along with your budgetary constraints and the dynamics of your virtualized environment. Agent-based and agentless software systems are two types of security measures that you can choose from in order to protect your information. Which one you choose depends on the type that best matches your security requirements.

Re-Assess Security Threats

Hackers, identity thieves and other criminals are constantly evolving their techniques, in order to access your information and profit from it. As a result, it’s important to continually perform risk assessment procedures to counteract deficiencies in your security systems. These risk assessments can be at the enterprise or operational level, and both types can be a part of your organization’s long-term strategic planning process.

Virtualization of your IT infrastructure has the power to reduce your operating costs and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your organization. However, making sure the proper security controls are in place is critical, if you’re going to leverage virtualization to your advantage.