Security Implications of the Virtualized Datacenter

With enterprise-class virtualization software hitting the market from VMware and Microsoft (ESX Virtual Infrastructure and Virtual PC, respectively), large names and support dollars are backing the virtual data center migration. Microsoft's Longhorn platform will ship with a native hypervisor, allowing direct virtualization via the operating system without the installation of a third party VMM. CPU manufacturers are rapidly working on implementing hardware-based hypervisors, such as AMD's Pacifica project. It is now almost common-place for corporate IT divisions to replace en masse the single-purpose 1U machine hosting one operating system with a 4U machine hosting 20 independent operating systems.