Web Sandbox in Azure Color

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Earlier today we rolled out an updated version of Live Labs Web Sandbox CTP, a technology for securing Web 2.0 through virtualization. This update incorporates new features on several fronts (more on that elsewhere). In this post I'd like to call out a new option for hosting the transformation component: the cloud, or more precisely the Azure Services Platform CTP. From the online documentation:

We insert the intercepting layer through a code transformation. By default this transformation executes server side, on our servers. Two additional options are available. If Silverlight is installed the transformation could execute client-side, thus saving the round-trip to the server. The transformation could also execute in the cloud, on the Azure Services Platform Community Technology Preview. (Note that the Azure transformation is enabled only when the gadget code is specified via a URL.)

The three options use the same codebase. The platform helped us extend the implementation, initially targeted at our server, to first cover the browser, and then to cover the cloud. Consequently, regardless of where it is hosted, the transformation should have the same result. You can choose which approach to use via the appropriate checkbox on the Sandbox experimentation pages.

Incidentally earlier today I also noticed that Web Sandbox (along with two other Live Labs projects I worked on) is now on the Windows Live Wikipedia page, in the Microsoft Live Labs section.

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