Virtual Machines Less Secure Than Physical Machines, Says Gartner

According to Gartner, 60 percent of virtual servers are less secure than physical servers, reports InfoWorld. This state of affairs will likely remain true until 2012, but should improve dramatically after that point. By 2015, Gartner predicts that only 30 percent of virtualized servers will be considered less secure.

There are six common security risks associated with virtualization deployments that Gartner identifies. Among them is the fact that virtualization projects are often undertaken without information security professionals in the initial planning stages. Also, a threat to the virtualization layer can affect all hosted workloads.