Patent ID: 8689292

Claim:
A workstation that dynamically provides an authorized user logged in through an authentication server with access to a plurality of security domains over a network, each of the security domains providing the authorized user access to secure information associated with each of the respective security domains, the workstation comprising: a storage component that protectively stores a plurality of virtual machine appliances local to the workstation, each of the plurality of virtual machine appliances operatively configured to provide secured access to the secure information associated with at least one of the plurality of security domains over the network; and a virtual machine environment, operative on the workstation, that executes any one or more of the plurality of virtual machine appliances stored local to the workstation, wherein the virtual machine environment further comprises: an authentication component operative within the virtual machine environment that provides the user with a single sign on, and that receives a role associated the user, each role having a description that specifies a level of access the user has to one or more of the plurality of security domains, a monitoring component operative within the virtual machine environment that monitors changes to the role or its description, and an instantiating component operative with the virtual machine environment that instantiates a virtual machine on the workstation within the virtual machine environment for each of at least a first plurality of the plurality of the virtual machine appliances based on the role of the user, and that, based on changes to the role, dynamically instantiates another virtual machine on the workstation within the virtual machine environment and/or removes at least one of the instantiated virtual machines from the workstation within the virtual machine environment while the user is logged in, whereby the virtual machine environment dynamically controls access of the user to the plurality of security domains.