AWS, Microsoft, and Google agree the session is the new unit of compute. They disagree on how to isolate it.
Summary
AWS, Microsoft, Google, and Anthropic are converging on a new agent runtime model where the session, not the request, becomes the unit of compute. The article argues that enterprise agents need state continuity and strong isolation because they run long-lived, stateful, and sometimes untrusted code. It compares each vendor’s approach, from AWS microVM-based session isolation to Microsoft’s per-session sandboxing and Anthropic’s session-harness-sandbox split. It also explains why session binding, identity, and tenant context remain application responsibilities even when the platform manages routing and lifecycle. For enterprise buyers, the shift creates a clear opportunity to evaluate agent runtimes, isolation layers, and session-aware infrastructure.
