Cloud security tactics: Virtualization and the VMM

Cloud Computing is acclaimed to be the new paradigm that will reform organizations and pave the way to new and better business practices. Its abundant features captivated the interest of many individuals and organizations, either as customers or providers. The market, emboldened by optimistic reports regarding the future of cloud computing, demands further innovative services and features. The migration to cloud computing, however, is deterred by the issue of security. Especially, in virtual environments, security is a major concern, as multi-tenancy may facilitate cyber attacks at a massive scale. The subversion of a system implicates multiple customers, augmenting the potential impact. Thus, researchers have concentrated their efforts in designing architectures and techniques that will endorse security in virtualized environments of the cloud. In this paper, we present the latest proposed techniques which aim to enhance security and revolve directly or indirectly around the most important component of the virtual environment, the Virtual Machine Monitor.