Virtualization's next frontier: security

Server virtualization improves sharing and utilization, reduces server sprawl, saves power, cuts maintenance costs, and reduces the quantity of hardware to acquire. While these benefits have traditionally been considered valuable and compelling reasons for server virtualization, there is a paradigm shift in the foundation in which higher education institutions are interested in virtualization technology. Server virtualization can improve overall system security and reliability by isolating multiple software stacks in their own virtual environments. Security is improved because intrusions can be confined to the virtual environment in which they occur, while reliability can be enhanced because software failures in one virtual environment do not affect the other virtual environments. In addition, server virtualization simplifies an array of security related tasks from disaster recovery, forensic analysis, to intrusion detection and prevention. At Ringling College of Art and Design we are approaching security by virtualization and achieved noticeable results. In this report we plan to discuss our approach, framework, implementation details, lessons learned, and next steps.