With all the changes VM management is going to bring to data centers and IT ops in general we can surely expect to see a rapid increase is research being done around VM security.
This artice about Core Security's lastest work in researching VM security gives a great example, and the research will of course lead to the need for security configuration and patching for all the VMs on networks
Core Security co-founder and CTO Iván Arce, “it’s wrong to think that just by spreading virtualization all over your organization you will be more secure.”