Education must start at the top. Most C-Level people employing virtualization already understand the benefits. But the top IT people within a corporation must have more technical training.

Specifically, security specialists must understand how VMs are different from physical servers or security decisions will be based on outdated and inaccurate information. Fixing those mistakes requires expensive help in the form of one of the few available big-gun virtualization security consultants.

The IT playing field has shifted to a more integrated world where IT fiefdoms and protections are no longer valid and should be dismantled.

To me, not learning all you can about virtualization is a career-limiting move.

Virtualization expert Edward L. Haletky is the author of "VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers," Pearson Education (2008.) He recently left Hewlett-Packard, where he worked in the Virtualization, Linux, and High-Performance Technical Computing teams. Haletky owns AstroArch Consulting, providing virtualization, security, and network consulting and development. Haletky is also a champion and moderator for the VMware discussion forums, providing answers to security and configuration questions.