Runtime environment for virtualizing information technology appliances

The system for virtualizing information technology (IT) appliances comprising:

• one or more processors;
• at least one computer-readable medium storing computer program instructions;
• and
• an IT appliance hosting facilities software, comprising at least a portion of the computer program instructions, implemented at a layer of abstraction above a virtual machine host, which is implemented in a layer of abstraction above a hardware layer of a computing system, wherein the IT appliance hosting facilities software comprises programmatic code functioning as virtualized hardware upon which a plurality of IT appliance software modules are able to concurrently run, wherein the IT appliance hosting facilities software is configured to provide caching, application level security, and a standardized framework for running the plurality of IT appliance software modules, each configured in conformance with the standardized framework.