A new wave of appliances is rolling into the Internet gateway security space. They weigh nothing. They have no physical footprint. There’s no setup. And, there are no special hardware requirements. Enter the virtual machine. It’s a mid-market IT manager’s dream that’s fast becoming a reality.

Virtualization is the big buzz in the security community these days. A virtual machine refers to running multiple operating systems and their applications at the same time on one physical computer (which might have a different native operating system). You can even run several virtual machines for multiple users and for different purposes.

For a long time, virtual machines have been relegated to high-end servers or test labs, but new software and hardware are bringing virtualization to the mainstream. Integrating security defenses into virtual machine technology is fast becoming another efficient and cost-effective option in the fight against malware and other threats. In essence, the "appliance" is all software.

McAfee and other security vendors are investing research and development efforts into virtual Internet gateway appliances. In the near future, this will become a serious alternative for customers whose personal preferences or dictated buying requirements may lead them to consider software appliances that have all the functionality, ease of management, and reliability of hardware appliances at a potentially lower cost and virtually no physical setup.

Virtualization offers a specific advantage to users—the ability to run a server image on the vast majority of hardware with a common set of drivers. For example, you’ll be able to install a secure Internet gateway software appliance on an off-the-shelf PC through the magic of virtual machine servers such as those offered by VMware. Eventually this means that the secure Internet gateway appliances could be made available in a fully functioning form as a VMware image without the limitation of needing specialized appliance hardware. Still, as with all things that increase flexibility, there is a limitation with virtualization. Overhead is an significant issue associated with a virtualized environment, especially when working with a single function implementation such as a security appliance. The basic hardware requires enough processor horsepower, so that your organization experiences performance comparable to a purpose-built hardware appliance.

Most importantly the quality of the customer experience promises to be as good as the hardware appliance because the virtual appliance is running in its native operating system environment. Some appliances, for example, require a Linux operating system. With VMware, any machine with an Intel processor running Windows can run the Linux operating system and the software appliance in parallel. It’s not even necessary to validate it on the virtual machine. The big names in operating systems, Novell, RedHat, SUSE Linux, and Microsoft are starting to see the value of virtualization and are now providing support in their operating systems. Eventually, a virtualization server may not even be necessary.

"Choice" is the operative word, particularly for cost-conscious and resource-strapped mid-market IT shops looking for high-octane spam blocking offered by gateway appliances. For some IT departments, it’s simply easier to get a software purchase approved. And, in fact, a dedicated machine may not be required if your data center is already running virtualization on brawny iron, such as heavy-duty blade servers. Plus, the gratification is instantaneous. There are no boxes to unpack and no cabling. For the mid-market IT manager, virtualization could mean just a download and installation operation to initiate a fully functioning security appliance.

Imagine what life would be like if you could download an entire appliance and be well on your way to securing your network gateway in minutes. Keep your ears to ground in the coming months. Virtualization won’t be just a dream any more!