San Francisco - For the IT worker, the phrase "desktop mobility" has many meanings. It can mean having a laptop computer. It can mean keeping all your data in the cloud so that you can access it at any time and from anywhere. It can even mean downsizing your work environment to fit on a PDA or a smartphone.
In each of these cases, a common denominator still applies: the need to carry with you one or more devices with which to access your applications and data. However, with the emergence of virtualization technology, it is now possible to take your complete working environment with you ??? including all of your applications and data ??? on something as small as a USB stick.
The idea of a mobile virtual machine is not new. Both VMware and Microsoft (via its acquisition of Kidaro) have been promoting this model for some time. What's different today is that you can achieve many of the same goals ??? machine independence, the ability to conduct business travel sans laptop ??? without resorting to the often limiting confines of a VM.
Thanks to the magic of application virtualization, you can now place all of your key work-related programs and data onto a portable device and access them directly from any Windows-based desktop, with the full fidelity and performance of the local machine. It's the ideal solution for situations where a zero-footprint runtime scenario is required, such as using a kiosk PC in a hotel lobby or working at a locked-down desktop in a secure environment.
Of course, to create virtualized applications, you need an application virtualization solution. For the enterprise, that means either Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid), Symantec SVS Pro (formerly Altiris), or VMware ThinApp (formerly Thinstall). Microsoft's solution is free to Microsoft Software Assurance Program customers. Even better, Symantec SVS is free for personal use. Unfortunately, the solution best suited for extreme mobility scenarios, ThinApp, is the most difficult to come by ??? at a starting price of $6,050 for 50 client licenses. ????
In this article, I'll show you how to build a fully functional, virtualized environment that runs from a USB key or portable hard disk, requires no software installation of any kind on the hosting client PC, and leaves no trace once you've disconnected your media. When you consider the possibilities for true device independence, not to mention the obvious advantages during a disaster-recovery scenario, I think you'll agree that application virtualization can and should be a key factor in any enterprise's long-term mobile computing strategy.
Fliers are asked to dump out their beverages, take off their shoes, and go through a number of other time-eating security procedures at the airport--but at least some travelers may not have to unpack their laptops, the Transportation Security Administration announced Friday.
Starting August 16, travelers will not have to remove laptops from bags that are deemed "checkpoint-friendly." This category includes "butterfly style," "sleeve style," and "trifold style" bags. These styles were chosen after the TSA asked bag manufacturers to design bags that would not obstruct the image of a laptop when put through an X-ray machine.
The new guidelines are meant to "help streamline the security process and better protect laptops," the TSA said in a press release. It noted, however, that using one of the "checkpoint-friendly" bags will not guarantee that a flier will not have to unpack his laptop. "Given TSA's use of random screening protocols, TSA reserves the right to rescreen any bag or laptop," the TSA said. And, while some bags on the market may not obstruct the scan of a laptop, "most current laptop bags will not present a clear X-ray image and should not be sent through the X-ray with the laptop inside."
Even travelers with "checkpoint-friendly" bags should place them on X-ray machines "completely unfolded...so that there is nothing above or below the laptop-only section," the TSA recommended.
Set aside for a second the likelihood that if it was you wouldn't be able to read this story and think instead about how you might go about tracking it down.
There are existing services, such as LoJack, that are designed to help find purloined laptops by identifying the IP addresses where they are subsequently used and through other assorted methods.
But according to a team of computer scientists at the University of Washington, the price you pay for utilizing such services is a loss of privacy--as well as a reliance on a corporate third party to take care of you.
That's why the team has come up with its own alternative, which it is calling Adeona, the name for the Roman goddess of safe returns.
The idea behind Adeona, according to Tadayoshi Kohno and Gabriel Maganis, who gave a talk about the project at the Gnomedex conference here Saturday, is to give people a method for safeguarding their laptops that relies neither on proprietary commercial software nor the centralized servers of the companies that provide such software.
Adeona, they said, is the world's first free, open-source laptop-tracking system, and one that can be installed by users themselves, and which doesn't require a corporate intermediary.
The team is also developing a version of its software for iPhones, though it isn't ready for public use yet.
To Kohno, the danger associated with commercial laptop-tracking services is that it's never possible to know for sure that someone at a company that makes such software wouldn't exploit the company's possession of your personal information--and access to what's on your laptop--for personal gain. Or, he said, that information could be subpoenaed in court cases.
To be sure, it's a very unlikely scenario, but Kohno--the faculty leader of the Adeona project--pointed out several recent instances where companies in possession of people's personal information were either forced to give it up in court, or where it was stolen by employees.
With Adeona, however, a user needs only install a piece of free, downloadable, software on their computer, and then make sure to make a copy of a credential key that the software provides and that they must keep on, say, a thumb drive, and which is required to track the laptop if it's stolen.
In essence, Adeona works very much like services like LoJack. But because the tracking doesn't go through central servers, Kohno suggested that there is more privacy and less reliance on corporate middlemen.
To be sure, the information you can get from Adeona if your computer does end up stolen will not necessarily lead you directly to it. It would most likely still take a bit of sleuthing, Kohno suggested.
But the software does use several different methods for laptop tracking, some of which might offer quick recovery.
The simplest is that it can broadcast the IP address where the computer is used, and the owner can use that information to contact law enforcement to help find the specific location.
Additionally, if the laptop is a Mac--at least one with a built-in camera--the software directs the camera to take a picture every 30 seconds or so. This means that the owner--if he or she has the credential key required to communicate with the laptop--can get pictures of whoever is using it. In some cases, they might recognize the person if, say, it was stolen by a neighbor, a co-worker, or someone else they know.
It also can sniff the SSID of the wireless network the thief is on, something that could be useful in tracking down the location of the computer.
Of course, the utility of Adeona, and any other laptop tracking software, for that matter, relies on the thief not being sufficiently tech-savvy that they can discover it and uninstall it. Further, as a FAQ on the Adeona site points out, the software can be abused by the owner to track, say, what a girlfriend or boyfriend is doing with the computer.
But in most cases, users who are wary of trusting their privacy to corporations may find that software like Adeona gives them an alternative they like.
My sense is that this software isn't for everyone and that it would require more knowledge of technology than the average laptop owner. But for those who have the requisite understanding, it might provide some comfort to know that they can turn to open-source software that doesn't require going through anyone else's servers.
Plus, you get the benefit of being protected by a Roman goddess. And when is that not a good thing?
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