Another source says security issues could be a disincentive to virtualization. "If encryption were to be a problem for us, it would probably severely impact our move towards virtualization," says Shlomi Harif, director of network systems and support at Austin Independent School District, which is testing the technology.
Virtualization leader VMware, for its part, is attempting to address the encrypton issue by working with HBA vendors on a technique that allows the HBAs to preserve the distinctions between virtualized applications. At the recent VMworld show, the vendor announced a partnership with Emulex based on the latter's LightPulse Virtual HBA, which will be available for VMware users in the first half of 2007. (See Emulex Teams With VMware.)
The idea behind the Emulex deal is that each virtual machine can access a dedicated HBA, effectively opening up the virtual infrastructure to fabric switches from the likes of Brocade, Cisco, and McData. In this way, applications running on virtual machines no longer appear as a single entity and can be individually encrypted.
But Hamidi is concerned that the additional layers of software required to achieve this will slow down his data encryption. At the moment he can encrypt non-virtual data almost instantaneously -- anything slower than that would be a problem for him. "In our environment we have a high number of files that contain credit card information that needs to be encrypted on the fly," he explains.
The other big encryption issue for users is key management, which, ironically, presents its own security threats. "The underlying premise of virtualization is shared memory space," explains Hamidi. "Theoretically, I could expose another application that shares the same memory and encryption keys."
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
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