Virtualized security is now effectively necessary to keep up with the complex security demands of a virtualized network, plus it’s more flexible and efficient than traditional physical security. Here are some of its specific benefits:

• Cost-effectiveness: Virtualized security allows an enterprise to maintain a secure network without a large increase in spending on expensive proprietary hardware. Pricing for cloud-based virtualized security services is often determined by usage, which can mean additional savings for organizations that use resources efficiently.
  
• Flexibility: Virtualized security functions can follow workloads anywhere, which is crucial in a virtualized environment. It provides protection across multiple data centers and in multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments, allowing an organization to take advantage of the full benefits of virtualization while also keeping data secure.
  
• Operational efficiency:Quicker and easier to deploy than hardware-based security, virtualized security doesn’t require IT teams to set up and configure multiple hardware appliances. Instead, they can set up security systems through centralized software, enabling rapid scaling. Using software to run security technology also allows security tasks to be automated, freeing up additional time for IT teams.
  
• Regulatory compliance:Traditional hardware-based security is static and unable to keep up with the demands of a virtualized network, making virtualized security a necessity for organizations that need to maintain regulatory compliance.
  

Virtualized security can take the functions of traditional security hardware appliances (such as firewalls and antivirus protection) and deploy them via software. In addition, virtualized security can also perform additional security functions. These functions are only possible due to the advantages of virtualization, and are designed to address the specific security needs of a virtualized environment. 

For example, an enterprise can insert security controls (such as encryption) between the application layer and the underlying infrastructure, or use strategies such as micro-segmentation to reduce the potential attack surface. 

Virtualized security can be implemented as an application directly on a bare metal hypervisor (a position it can leverage to provide effective application monitoring) or as a hosted service on a virtual machine. In either case, it can be quickly deployed where it is most effective, unlike physical security, which is tied to a specific device. 

The increased complexity of virtualized security can be a challenge for IT, which in turn leads to increased risk. It’s harder to keep track of workloads and applications in a virtualized environment as they migrate across servers, which makes it more difficult to monitor security policies and configurations. And the ease of spinning up virtual machines can also contribute to security holes. 

It’s important to note, however, that many of these risks are already present in a virtualized environment, whether security services are virtualized or not. Following enterprise security best practices (such as spinning down virtual machines when they are no longer needed and using automation to keep security policies up to date) can help mitigate such risks.