EMC World 2011: Security needs a new model for virtual world

EMC COO Pat Gelsinger says that security needs to move from physical to logical

To effectively secure the enterprise of the future we need an entirely new model of security, according to Pat Gelsinger, chief operating officer for EMC information infrastructure products, who was speaking at EMC World 2011 in Las Vegas yesterday.

"The world of security is changing rapidly," he said. "It is no longer about raw disruptive attacks by a bunch of teenagers, it's now tackling very sophisticated organised crime, targeted at high value assets," he said.

Gelsinger argued that the change required is partly driven by the move to virtualisation. "Where exactly do you attach security when the virtual machines are moving around? Security must evolve to address these new challenges," he said.

He explained that EMC and VMware are working together to deliver just such a new security model and that part of this would see the company develop new virtual boundaries around a datecentre.

"Boundaries [around the datecentre] need to be used to patrol information access. In a virtual world those physical boundaries are gone. We have to develop and apply new technologies that give us new virtual boundaries to hook on to," said Gelsinger.

"But, it is not about recreating the physical world. Security needs to move from physical to logical - where it is policy based, flexible and aligned with the logical boundaries of information and applications.

"And this has to be combined with risk management technologies, meaning that you will be able to recognise when one of your systems that is associated with high value assets, is out of compliance.

"And this system needes to work in the hybrid world, it needs to be able to deliver all of this across private and public datacentres."