Techie! Who said anything about virtual machine infrastructure? This is all about the human brain. You can't tell me that you've never woken up and said to yourself "I had the craziest dream..."
Can you also tell me that you've never had a dream where you woke up, and then woke up again?
Now heres something that might make you think... There are people that say that whole movie was a dream. The machines that the people hooked up to... well those don't exist. But could they exist in someone's dream? Your own dream? Who cares about morality in your own dream - its what you want it to be. Illegal by whos law? Your own? Not so much.
If you watched it once, I really beg of you to watch it one more time. It does raise some interesting questions once you watch it one more time and pick up on the details - or lack there of.
Last point - In the movie they say when you are dreaming you end up in places without knowing how you got there. How did the crew end up in the country at beginning? How did they guys end up on the train? And how did they get on the plane? Think about it.