Reference no: EM131812306

Assignment

Story

Cloud security is the hot topic today. At every security conference, I see speakers talking about "cloud security." But what I do not see is a discussion on virtualization and how it relates to the Cloud.

Honestly, it was not even something I thought about until I watched a security video and realized that there is a difference. Now, I wonder how many information assurance (IA) professionals are busy with their "regular" work and do not realize the difference because they do not have time to research it or because it has not directly affected them.

My big worry is that certain security vulnerabilities will be missed because of this gap in understanding.

Moral of the Story

Even IA professionals sometimes miss important nuances or differences in technologies. They are just as prone to being overly tasked as any other professional.

The example companies, organizations, products, people, and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, person, or event is intended or should be inferred.

Details

The story that you just read shows how difficult it can be to keep up with the differences in technologies. For this discussion, focus on virtualization and cloud security, and then respond to the questions. Consider the difficulties faced in the story and how some of these difficulties were overcome when responding to the questions below.

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400-600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

It is clear that there are many advantages for organizations implementing virtualization because it allows them to perform server consolidation, dynamic load balancing, certain power reduction requirements, and failover functionality. It can provide better security because of the isolation of processes from the threats. There are, however, numerous vulnerabilities and security concerns introduced by virtualization. Discuss the following:

• Provide an overview of at least 3 different vulnerabilities that were introduced by virtualization and the methods by which organizations are mitigating those security vulnerabilities.

• Virtualization and the cloud are two related topics. As a result, there is a lot of confusion between the two. Discuss the difference between virtualization and the cloud.