Building Systems to Be Shared, Securely

Abstract

The history of computing has been characterized by continuous transformation resulting from the dramatic increases in performance and drops in price described by Moore’s law. Computing power has migrated from centralized mainframes/servers to distributed systems and the commodity desktop. Despite these changes, system sharing remains an important tool for computing. From the multitasking, file-sharing, and virtual machines of the desktop environment to the large-scale sharing of server-class ISP hardware in collocation centers, safely sharing hardware between mutually untrusting parties requires addressing critical concerns of accidental and malicious damage.