Application Virtualization

I’ve seen it to some degree, but I wonder when application virtualization will hit big. I can fire up VMWare now and run a load balancer or other apps from within a virtual linux box, that’s the start. Will it take long to realize maybe we should open Outlook in some sort of micro virtualized sandbox with limited resources so that application can only inflict harm upon itself, maybe that sandbox has a small CIFS share to get attachments to the main OS area. Or how about IE/Firefox is opening in a different sandbox where it’s got a set amount of memory and virtual disk allocated to it so it won’t chew our system to shreds when it wonks out. A game that sets up it’s own microkernel with an encrypted file system that encrypts outbound traffic in an attempt to make it tough as nails to get in and hack the system. I think it’s on the horizon.