HP expands virtualized browsing solution

HP recently announced that it was expanding its virtualized browsing solution across select business desktop products. The offering is intended to help small businesses enhance their productivity and ease their management of the technology.

This first-of-its-kind Mozilla Firefox for HP Virtual Solution was developed by Symantec and Mozilla for HP customers.

The solution combines Mozilla’s Firefox browser software with Symantec’s application virtualization technology, Symantec Software Virtualization Solution (SVS).

By using an SVS layer, customers can surf the Internet productively while keeping business PCs stable, secure, and easier to support. Changes made to the PC while surfing are contained in a “virtual layer” that remains separate and isolated from the operating system. Because of that, customers can easily reset their browser and return their PC to a known good state.

At a time where malware is on the rise and is negatively affecting business PCs, this could prove to be an IT administrator’s best friend.

“This solution is a great example of the benefits application virtualization can provide both to users and to IT administrators,” said Ken Berryman, vice president of endpoint virtualization at Symantec. “By containing applications inside virtual layers and abstracting them from the hardware and operating system, not only does the management of the applications get more efficient, but the user experience is subsequently made more productive.”

The virtual protection tool is planned to be made available worldwide by end of the year at no additional cost on many of HP’s new business desktop models.