Protection for virtual environments is lagging, as, for many organisations, security concerns are often overshadowed by virtualisation benefits.
This is according to IDC and Kaspersky Lab analysis, which evaluated the global virtualisation market to identify the main trends and characteristics related to protecting virtual environments, while also providing a market forecast until 2014.
The analysis suggests that virtualisation is currently in use on most new servers, and in two years', the number of virtual machines will reach 18 million - twice the number of physical devices.
By 2013, the study adds, two thirds of all corporate services and applications will work in a virtual environment.
The companies believe such rapid evolution is driven primarily by the advantages of the technology. Some 75% of organisations that already use virtualisation recognise it as truly valuable and are making it a priority in the development of their IT infrastructures.
Timur Faroukshin, IDC's consulting director for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, says companies regard the advantages of virtualisation at the expense of security systems.
“In addition, specialised solutions are new, and many customers aren't aware that a new approach is available, or what the shortcomings are of their imported legacy security solutions,” Faroukshin comments.
Vladimir Udalov, senior corporate product marketing manager at Kaspersky Lab, notes that the latest analysis confirms the conclusions Kaspersky Lab made during its own survey of the European virtualisation market.
“Although 74% of the companies surveyed have already implemented or are planning to implement server virtualisation in the next 12 months, 41% of IT specialists still have basic and just enough knowledge instead of advanced experience to fully understand all the security risks in this area and to choose the right approach to protecting virtual environments,” says Udalov.
“Moreover, 42% of specialists surveyed mistakenly believe that IT security risks are much lower in the virtual environment than in the physical one,” he adds.
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