Anyone who’s been in the Microsoft security space for a while knows that a key component of security is stability and availability. If you run security services on a machine that is not reliable and available, then the security services provided by the machine are of no use, and thus exposes your infrastructure to potential security issues that would not exist if those services had been available.

Given that an increasing number of network security services are being hosted in virtual machines, it’s important that the virtualization environment on which those virtual machines run has been validated by the vendors who’s services you run in a virtualized environment.

To this end Microsoft has stepped up to the plate with the Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program. As Microsoft describes this program:

“The Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) is open to any vendor who delivers a virtualization machine solution that hosts Windows Server 2008, Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 4 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 and subsequent service packs. The virtualization solution can either be hypervisor-based or a hosted solution. The program enables vendors to validate various configurations so that customers of Windows Server can receive technical support in virtualized environments. Customers with validated solutions will benefit from the support provided by Microsoft as a part of the regular Windows Server technical support framework.
The Server Virtualization Validation Program is not a logo program, rather a reference that companies and customers will be able to use in conjunction with their validated solutions”

For more information on the Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) check out:

http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp/

HTH,

Tom

Thomas W Shinder, M.D.
Site: http://www.isaserver.org/
Blog: http://blogs.isaserver.org/shinder/
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Email: tshinder@isaserver.org
MVP — Microsoft Firewalls (ISA)