Virtual servers are an important part of many businesses' IT infrastructure. They provide flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. However, they are also vulnerable to cyber attacks that can steal or destroy sensitive data. Therefore, it is important to protect your virtual servers.
Security is an important aspect of using VMware, whether you have your own infrastructure or you are using a hosted service. VMware offers several features and tools to protect your virtual machines, disks, and data. One of these features is KMIP.
Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP)
KMIP is a standard that defines how encryption keys can be managed and distributed across different systems and devices. KMIP allows for centralizing and simplifying key management, as well as reducing the risk of key loss or compromise. KMIP is supported by many encryption solution vendors.
Protect VMware with encryption and KMIP
In VMware, you can use KMIP to secure your virtual disks and data using vSphere Virtual Machine Encryption (VM Encryption). VM Encryption encrypts entire virtual disks at the storage level, which means that data is protected both at rest and in motion. To use VM Encryption, you need a KMIP-compliant key server, Key Management System (KMS), that can generate and store encryption keys for your virtual machines.
To configure VM Encryption with KMIP, you need to follow a few steps:
- Create a key server group in vCenter Server and add your KMS service.
- Enable VM Encryption in your vSphere client.
- Create an encryption policy in vSphere Storage Policy Based Management.
- Assign the encryption policy to your virtual machines or disks.
Once you have done this, your virtual disks and data will be encrypted with keys from your KMS and be under your control. You can also monitor and manage your encrypted objects in the vSphere client.
Protecting data from theft is achieved by using a Key Management System (KMS) to control access to the keys and encrypted objects. The keys can have different attributes that specify their lifecycle, usage, and permissions. The keys can also be revoked or destroyed if they are no longer needed or compromised.
A KMIP protected virtual server can never be started outside of your organization, nor can a snapshot or full server image backup be used without access to your private key.
KMIP is a powerful way to secure your virtual servers and disks in VMware, both in your own infrastructure and in a hosted service. By using KMIP, you can centralize and simplify key management, as well as enhance the security of your sensitive data. If you want to learn more about KMIP and VM Encryption, you can read more on VMware's website or contact us for a demonstration.
