A Gartner report, entitled Addressing the Most Common Security Risks in Data Center Virtualization Projects, anticipates that through 2012, 60 percent of virtualized servers will be less secure than the physical servers they replace. By 2015, the research firm finds, that number will fall to 30 percent.

"Virtualization is not inherently insecure," says Gartner vice president Neil MacDonald. "However, most virtualized workloads are being deployed insecurely. The latter is a result of the immaturity of tools and processes and the limited training of staff, resellers and consultants."

Click here to access the Gartner report.