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LAS VEGAS -- Think server sprawl is bad now? Just wait till you experience virtual server sprawl. When users can clone a virtual machine with the click of a mouse, or save versions of applications and operating systems for later use, you're asking for trouble if IT doesn't maintain tight control, virtualization management vendor Embotics warned in a session at Interop Las Vegas Tuesday. (Look through our slideshow at other products shown at Interop.)
Server virtualization projects are driven by a desire for consolidation, yet the uncontrolled proliferation of virtual machines can result in the opposite, David Lynch, vice president of marketing for Embotics, said in a session called "Virtualization's Phantom Menace: Security."
Physical servers and software resources are wasted by virtual sprawl, which also burdens IT with more manual processes and increased security risk, Lynch said.
"The risk of sprawl is a lot higher in the virtual world than it is in the physical world," he said. "When you think of how common sprawl is in the physical world, that means we're going to see it even more in the virtual world."
Virtual sprawl isn't defined by numbers; it's defined as the proliferation of virtual machines...