1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions, which when executed, cause: in response to a client determining that digital content is to be received or processed by the client, the client consulting policy data to determine one or more policies for use by the client in identifying one or more virtual machines into which the digital content is to be stored, wherein the one or more policies specify how long each of the one or more virtual machines are to be persisted, which resources of the client each of the one or more virtual machines may access, and that the one or more virtual machines can each only access a limited subset of metadata properties of a client resource or a network resource; and the client storing the digital content in the identified one or more virtual machines.