Chris Whitener is HP's Security Strategist. Last month Chris wrote an article in CIO magazine titled Virtualization How-To: Five Steps to Safer Virtual Servers. This was based on a lot of our insights drawn from our customer engagements, our research and internal projects. This was syndicated to Infoworld and PC World.

Fundamentally, the steps are:

1. Protect your host operating system by using server hardening tools and methodologies.
2. Ensure that your host OS is as secure as the guest operating system
3. Security policies in the host OS should reflect requirements of individual virtual machines
4. Manage virtual processes more like you already manage your physical resources
5. Stay vigilant about securely managing the physical infrastructure

While somewhat high level, these are some core principles we work to when implementing virtual solutions. Looking at the specific sub-areas (e.g. storage or cloud) and the more specific requirements of each allows for refinements and extensions to these approaches, so I'll be talking more about secure virtualization in each area in future posts.

You can find more details on each of the steps in the article, or write me directly if you would like to talk in detail as we're working on updates and services to help deliver more specifics.