2010 State of Virtualization Security Survey (Prism Microsystems)

Executive Summary

Over a period of 2 weeks in March 2010, Prism Microsystems conducted a web‐based survey on virtualization security that was completed by 302 IT professionals across multiple industries and company sizes. The survey was designed to yield data on the current and future adoption of virtualization and to gauge opinions and experiences on virtual environment security concerns, controls, and implementation.

The survey was posted on the Prism Microsystems website, and invitations to participate were sent to Prism Microsystems customers and over 50,000 subscribers to the EventSource newsletter. In addition, the survey was made available to the general public via social media platforms such as Twitter and Linkedin. All responses were automatically collected by a commercially available survey tool. Skipping of questions was not allowed.

Percentages shown in some charts will not add up to 100% because of the option to select multiple responses.

1. Virtualization is widespread but penetration remains low
2. Traditional security solutions, processes and strategies are still being applied to the virtual environment
3. Adequate controls on the Hypervisor layer are lacking
4. Virtualization is not inherently insecure, however, confidence in virtual environment security is low




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• - Widespread  adoption but only 12% solidly down the road to virtualization
• - Only 28% expressed confidence in the security of their virtual environments
• - A majority acknowledged importance of securing the virtualization layer, yet only a small minority has implemented adequate controls at the Hypervisor level.
• - 51% cited budget as a primary inhibitor to securing virtual environments

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