With the prevalence of the Internet and the heightened levels of online business and the ever-present threat of cyber-attacks, implementing data center security has become extremely important. In general, data centers consist of routers, switchboards, application servers, firewalls, physical security devices, and virtualization. Cyber-attacks can be dangerous. In September 2020, a cyber-attack knocked out critical systems at a University Hospital in Düsseldorf, Western Germany.
A data center must be equipped with an effective data center security environment. As such, it must employ both physical and virtual security solutions to protect sensitive data, assets, systems, and information. Datacenter security is an ongoing task that must be performed to secure the assets that make up a business. Virtualization technology offers many solutions to network infrastructures and data centers that were once considered too difficult or impossible to secure. Vulnerability assessment, patch management, and application security are only a few of the areas that businesses can effectively tackle. By adopting these solutions, a company will be able to thwart many common attacks that allow attackers access to sensitive data stored in a data center.
Physical security tools are usually deployed in data centers to prevent attacks. For instance, firewalls serve as a basic form of filtering, blocking, and monitoring for unauthorized ports and accesses. With data center security, some attacks can be easily avoided. But as these tools become less efficient, they have to be augmented with newer technologies that can protect higher levels. Virtualization allows information to be stored in a different form and then sent as a virtual machine over the Internet.
Virtualization is one of the few technologies that can reduce the attack risks posed by a physical or logical vulnerability, which makes it a very important component of an overall network security infrastructure. Virtualization allows a virtual machine to run beside a physical computer that functions the same way. As such, the virtual machine is provided with the same operating system, memory, hard drive, and even physical device drivers as the physical machine. With virtualization, attacks do not succeed in accessing data stored in a physical data center, as they would be redirected to another virtual machine.
Another major area of weakness in the physical security of a center lies in the backup and recovery of critical applications and data. Virtual machines allow for easy storage of data and enable fast restoration of any applications that were lost due to an attack. This can mean the difference between being able to hold an office and being unable to continue making critical decisions. Preventing attacks means avoiding losing valuable data, which leads to a higher level of productivity.