BANGALORE, INDIA: We're all aware how web browsing has become critical today. Right from dealing in online transactions to engaging in online games and browsing (legitimate) in general, we avail the web under the presumption that it is safe and secure. However, statistics tell a different story altogether, notes Shantanu Ghosh, VP, product operations, Symantec India.

Symantec VIBES to fill virtual holes
In 2007, Symantec documented 122 vulnerabilities in Mozilla, 47 in Safari and 57 in Internet Explorer. To address these threats, Symantec Research Labs Core Research group developed VIBES (Virtualization based endpoint security).

By transparently setting up multiple isolated virtual execution environments, each with its own level of trust, this new approach significantly improves browser security by enabling users to seamlessly use different virtual execution environments for carrying out different web transactions.

The three virtual execution environments in the current VIBES prototype are:  
- The "User"; virtual machine is where normal day-to-day activities are performed.
- The "Trusted"; virtual machine is where trusted operations such as entering sensitive credential information are conducted.
- The "Playground"; virtual machine is where more adventurous, 'untrusted' activities are carried out, such as visiting unknown web sites or downloading unknown applications.

Symantec's VIBES technology is unique in its ability of switching to the most appropriate virtual execution environment, for a given interaction scenario and completely hides the use of virtualization from end users.

Desktop vs data centre virtualization
Virtualization is applicable on desktops as well as data centres. We might see a number of enterprises adopting virtualization in 2009. However, the lack of data centre resources might act as a hurdle in the adoption of virtualization, even if it has the potential to save money in the long term.

Currently, enterprises are not spending towards making a transition. This is due to the high cost of maintaining PCs and the popularity of client-server technology. Thus, desktop virtualization is quickly gaining traction.

Costs can vary, but one study by a leading industry research group states the total cost of ownership for a desktop PC is about $5,400 per PC, per year. And this increases as the PC depreciates. Because of the rise in the cost of managing and securing PCs, organizations are looking for alternatives such as desktop virtualization.

There is also the surge in at-home workers, a trend that has increased the need for virtualization on the desktop. With employees working from home, IT has lost some control over security. It is obvious that IT needs to be concerned with security of their entire infrastructure with the increase in data security breaches and the resulting new laws and regulations.

Windows Vista is one of the driving forces behind desktop virtualization. Still, several IT executives are concerned that with Vista they will have to upgrade their current devices. However, thanks to virtualization, companies can run this new OS on servers supporting thin client desktops.