This Soap Box edition is all about desktop microvirtualisation! Bromium has been around for about six years now, and they make an endpoint security package that is really, really different to other solutions in the market. The whole thing hinges on what they call a Microvisor, which amounts to hardware-enabled isolation on your desktop.

Bromium’s software is basically a way to virtualise user tasks, whether that’s working on a Word document or browsing an exploit-riddled lyrics website with Java and Flash enabled, the idea is if an exploit gets dropped on you it gets trapped in a micro-VM.

Personally, I’m a big fan of Bromium’s stuff. one of the things that kind of hindered the adoption of this tech in its early days is it relies on CPU features that were basically new six years ago, so not everyone could run it. There was also a bit of a UX hit. But there’s good news! Hardware refresh cycles have taken their course, and now running Bromium’s software is viable in almost all enterprises.

Where this goes from being interesting to downright compelling is if you’re an enterprise forced to run vulnerable software. I’m thinking specifically of old browsers running things like Java. In many organisations, running out-of-date crapware is a business requirement.

Well, running Bromium on those endpoints will basically solve that problem. Sure, nothing is magic, but by the time you’ve finished listening to this conversation with Bromium co-founder and President Ian Pratt, I think you’ll definitely want to take a look at the tech. You should take a look at the tech, because it’s borderline impossible to solve that problem any other way.

I hope you enjoy it!