Your Next Computer.... in the Cloud ?

For years, the “virtual PC” has been the dream of users and corporations alike. After all, why do millions of us lug around a laptop with our Windows desktop stuck to it? Why do we risk theft, loss or damage to valuable data when our entire workspace — and data – could instead live in the cloud and be accessed from anywhere by any of our devices….

[This is a re-post of my Blog on Wired Innovation Insights. Click to read more]

The Beginning of the Non-Dedicated Device World?

Originally published on Citrix Blogs.

What makes your phone your phone? Or, for that matter, what makes your desktop, your laptop or your tablet yours? After all, millions of people own identical hardware/software configurations of iPhones, Android-based phones, tablets, laptops and other devices.

The answer lies in two defining aspects of each device: The user’s data that is locally-stored, and the user’s personalization information.

But in the very near future, I foresee that people will move interchangeably among many more devices, and will do so fluidly. They will rent, exchange, or even borrow devices that become theirs perhaps only for minutes or days, before being re-used and re-personalized by others.  These devices might even be un-assigned, yet can take on the personalization, features, and data access of each new user, and these users will do this because the devices are specifically fit-for-purpose, or just available at the time.

For example, have you ever forgotten your phone, but your wife has hers? Wouldn’t it be great to just borrow hers and have it instantly (but temporarily) take on your persona and contact list?  Have you ever walk into a meeting and your laptop battery dies? The conference room has a shared PC. No problem – the PC will become “yours” for the next hour.

You get the picture.

It’s Already Started: Your Data is Anywhere

Why would we want mobile data/personas?

Looking at mobility from a data context, we’re already seeing wholesale evolution with services such as iCloud, ShareFile, Amazon Cloud Drive, Google Drive and others.  Wherever you are, whatever device you use, your data is instantly accessible. Gartner terms this your “personal cloud.”  We even see this metaphor paired with applications – for example with Xmarks on my FireFox browser, where any FireFox browser I launch on any device instantly brings along my set of stored bookmarks. My personal data store always follows me.

Also consider this: If you think of content as another form of your personal data store, we’re also seeing your data served up in a similar manner. Personalized services such as NetFlix, Hulu, Amazon, Pandora and others are offering content – custom to you – on any device you hold, even through a personalized device known as your networked living room TV.

Whether we realize it or not, the need for locally-stored data is quickly being obviated by online data portability services – all living in the Cloud.

Next: Your Personalization Anywhere

As Gartner recently highlighted during the Data Center conference this month, the personal laptop is no longer the “hub” of your activity. Rather, all devices you own are in effect peers. And pretty soon, all devices you touch will be equivalent peers too.

Here are a few illustrations:

• Cell phone loss: Lose your phone?  Instantly recover your data, apps, personalization, ring tones etc. This won’t just be an in-store service anymore.

• Cell phone missing?  Just borrow a nearby phone and temporarily personalize it

• Work and personal phones? Sure. Combine your work profile and number, plus personal profile and number accessible from a single device.

• Moving from your desktop in your office to a Tablet on the road? No problem – data, personality and session are all portable

• No laptop for a business meeting: No need to lug physical hardware. Just re-assign and personalized an on-site device – or borrow one from a friend.

• Traveling but want to watch your home TV or service? No problem. Re-assign the media profile of a TV or small screen to access your home or online streaming content profile

• In a rental car?  Assign your personalization and have the radio pre-set with favorite stations and streaming audio subscriptions, and the GPS will be loaded with your contacts/addresses

• Data Portability in the Cloud – It’s now an accepted practice that data can live in the cloud, securely accessed from anywhere. Network advances continue to make fatter pipes, increasing real-time access

• Mobile Personalization – More personal preferences, profiles and use patterns are also being stored in the cloud. And more devices are making use of flexible personalization to adapt to screen size, input devices, etc. (Gartner predicts that the Personal Cloud will be the center of our digital lives, for apps, content and preferences – allowing you to sync across devices. Services will become more important; devices become less important.)

• Workspace-as-a-service technologies –entire workspaces – not just apps – can now be delivered as a service to any device. That includes session portability, simple “storefronts” for users to self-provision, and global availability and content delivery systems.   (Gartner predicts that by 2014, most organizations will deliver mobile apps and workspaces to workers via private application stores.)

What Will Make It All Work?

There are three industry trends I see as creating this perfect environment for a world that uses non-dedicated devices

Aside from fancy personalized covers and nametags, what makes your devices “yours” really lives in the cloud – and there is no reason that data won’t follow you to nearly any device you use or touch.

And then, perhaps the sense of ownership – or need to use “our own” device – will slowly fade away. Taking its place will be our willingness to use whatever device is in within reach.

Your Next Computer… in the Cloud?

For years, the “virtual PC” has been the dream of users and corporations alike. After all, why do millions of us lug around a laptop with our Windows desktop stuck to it? Why do we risk theft, loss or damage to valuable data when our entire workspace -- and data – could instead live in the cloud and be accessed from anywhere by any of our devices... 

[continued as guest Blog on Wired Innovation Insights]

Cloud-Hosted Desktops: Real and Growing

A day doesn’t pass that I’m not asked (by a co-worker, partner or analyst) about whether hosted/virtual desktops delivered over the public Internet make sense.

My response usually takes an empirical approach, and cites the offers and business types that are already in-market and growing. (See related blog, How Big is the DaaS Market)

Insofar as economic pros/cons are concerned, there appear to be layers of arguments over what approach has a lower total cost of ownership, what performance is best, what infrastructure to use, etc. And I’ve decided not to pursue those areas for a number of reasons.

Why? The primary reason is because it simply doesn’t make sense to compare the capabilities of today’s cloud-hosted desktops to the capabilities of a traditional PC-delivered desktop. Believe it or not, it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison. Today’s hosted desktops enable delivery to any type of device (PC, phone, tablet, touch-device), permit device-to-device session roaming, provide superior data security/sandboxing, have global availability, and offer a great user experience to boot.  More than you get with a fixed PC.

So I decided to look at who’s currently offering what to whom… and what I found was pretty impressive.  Not only did I track a massive number of firms in the Desktop-as-a-Service (“DaaS”) market, but there were many in each geography even with vertical or industry-specific flavors (also see my Differentiate or Die blog)

Check out These Vendors

Follows are some examples of Hosted Desktop / DaaS vendors and their offers – regardless of the hardware/virtualization platform they use. (Disclosure: These are all partners of the Citrix Service Provider / CSP program)

GreenQube – Hosted Office 

GreenQube offers SMBs and enterprises their GreenQube Hosted Office (desktop, apps and data) via a secure and cost effect subscription-based services. They pair the offers with a high quality customer service that monitors, manages and continually upgrades resources. The firm offers a variety of Desktop packages 

Intercept IT – Online Desktop 

Based out of the UK, Intercept IT offers a generalized DaaS offering. To paraphrase, OnlineDesktop delivers all crucial application and data needs via Intercept IT’s bespoke cloud. The remote desktop service is available anywhere there is an Internet connection. Rather than businesses having to manage a costly internal IT system, it becomes possible to effectively rent IT as a service, on a cost-per-user, per-month subscription basis. See their PDF Brochure 

Multrix – Hosted Desktops 

Based in Amsterdam, Multrix has a thriving business hosting 350 customers with more than 6,500 seats of their Hosted Desktop.  Their service provides all the standard applications users are accustomed to, such as Microsoft Office, Exchange, Internet Explorer (and other browsers), antivirus, antispam, WinZip, Adobe reader. In addition they support more than 350 business applications in the field of ERP, CRM, financial and more specific (industry) applications.  Multrix has an excellent case study published, courtesy of Citrix 

Nasstar – Hosted Desktop 

Out of the UK, Nasstar’s Hosted Desktop is a generalized cloud computing solution which enables users to access their desktops, business apps and files in the cloud so they can work from anywhere on a wide range of devices. Their Hosted Desktop provides a single access point for many apps, ranging from the most commonly used - such as Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange email and Sage - to industry specific and bespoke apps. The company also offers a range of on-demand, published and web-based apps that can be delivered through their offerings. 

nGenx - nFinityDesktop 

Based in the US and focusing on workforce mobility, nGenx offers two primary types of desktops to SMBs and enterprises.  nFinity Advanced Desktop – powerful and fully functional desktop with user customization, streaming video capabilities, advanced productivity tools, and full access to nFinity Apps.  nFinity Basic Desktop – simple, yet effective HTML5 operability, core desktop functionality, user customization, and access to productivity apps as well as some nFinity Apps.

xCentric – Managed workstations & hosted applications

One of my favorites in the US, xCentric focuses solely on one vertical: Accounting and CPA firms.  And I love their opening volley: “We focus solely on accounting firms - yes solely. We know your software, your associations, your deadlines... and are still investing in learning more about what makes a firm both tick and succeed in today's marketplace.”  And they do a great job of speaking to the firms’ business owners and administrators about why hosted desktops.   

More Resources & pointers

• Video endorsements of Cloud-Hosted desktops based on Citrix

The End of the Laptop-Centric World?

Is this you:  You own multiple laptops or desktop computers because you have different uses, jobs, clients or applications? 

Doesn't this seem ridiculously inefficient and wasteful - especially because we now in the "cloud era"?

Turns out there are quite elegant solutions that move us away from this "boat anchor" centric lifestyle where activity revolves around the laptop work hub.

The solutions I have in mind are not always broadly used, or for that matter, broadly known. But they are often quite simple, convenient, and even cost-advantageous.

Let me give you a hypothetical example - but based very much in reality (names have been changed to protect the innocent). And I'll share a very reasonable set of solutions, too.

Act I: The Setup
Let's take a consultant named Margo.  She runs a small firm with a handful of large corporate clients.  To accomplish her work she needs access to each client's intranet as well as a number of their secure, internal applications.  She also needs to share data with co-workers in her firm, as well as share it back to individual contacts within each client.

Each time Margo takes on a new client, they issue her firm a corporate laptop, usually equipped with VPN software and a 2-factor security app with a physical fob. Whenever Margo does remote work with a given client -- accessing the intranet, using internal apps, interacting via collaboration software, or even certain VoiP apps -- she must use the appropriate laptop.  And that's about 80% of the time.

To add to this, alongside each laptop, Margo uses a DropBox account with folders dedicated to each client. She shares these folders with her co-workers as well as client contacts within each company (and who are behind each client's firewall) as interactive project-based workspaces.

Act II: The (Troubling) Reality
Fast-forward: We have Margo with an office full of client-provided hardware. Together her firm is holding capital equipment that cost each client between $2k-$4k.  It's equipment inventory each of her clients have had to request, allocate, provision, track and maintain (and likely one day, recapture). Besides the cost and efforts to secure, the equipment is still subject to breakage, loss, theft and/or other forms of compromise. 

That's wasteful / risk-laden observation #1.

Next, we have the "DropBox problem": One day Margo realizes that she's running short of disk space on her own office tower computer. She tracks it back to the fact that her single DropBox account contains files from all of her co-workers representing the work from all of her clients... and it dawns on her that files from client A have been accessible to all other clients via the single DropBox account. She races to modify the access rights to various DropBox folders.

That's risk-laden observation #2

Finally, Margo finds herself on a business trip visiting Client A. She gets a call from Client B needing an urgent intervention. But since she isn't carrying the laptop from Client B, she's unable to help.

That's just plain silly observation 3

Act III: An Elegant Solution

All of these unfortunate scenarios are a result of a "PC Era" view of the world - where data, access and security are tied to the physical laptop. To be certain, there are absolutely scenarios where this should remain the case. But in Margo's case, the model is antiquated.  Let's move to the "Cloud Era" and see how things might be different.

Enter the concepts of "Mobile applications" and "Virtual desktops". In these cases, each of Margo's clients provides a shared (or dedicated) desktop OS behind their firewall. They might also provide a secure application streaming protocol for specific internal applications (think: SAP, accounting, web browsing, email, etc. etc.).  Both desktop and/or application gateway are made available as virtual desktops & apps via a web gateway to approved users.  All a user needs is a client device (laptop, iPad, smartphone) and a secure authentication mechanism.

So, Margo would simply carry her own personal laptop (or iPad, for example) as well as security fobs from each of her consulting clients.

Any time Margo needs access to work with a client, she connects to a gateway (think: click on an app) hosted by one of her clients, and enters her security credentials. Up pops a secure desktop belonging to one of her clients, just the way she left it the last time she accessed it.  All of her data files are there, as well as email and applications. And she'll have complete secure access to her client's corporate intranet.  In fact, she could even have multiple secure desktops from each of her clients up-and-running simultaneously on a single machine, with no security issues whatsoever.

But there's one difference: When she closes the session(s), no client data will reside on her laptop - safe and sound for her clients. And, no matter where she is, no matter what device she has (her own, a borrowed iPad, etc.) she can re-access those desktops and/or applications.  Pretty elegant.

What if Margo is "untethered"?  There's even a scenario for the untethered worker. She could install a virtual machine desktop on her laptop.  Within that secure "sandbox" would run the OS belonging to her client, with all access rights etc. Each time the device is connected to the net, the sandboxed OS (and its apps) would synchronize with her client's IT department. 

Oh - And what about that "DropBox Problem"?  With this model she (and her co-workers) can use a shared drive or service either (a) within the client's firewall, accessible whenever the virtual desktop is active, or (b) a separate shared drive brokered by a client's own gateway service.  Never would Margo risk data from one client being co-mingled with data from another.

In my opinion, the "PC era" will begin to ebb, as the concept of mobile apps and virtual workspaces begins to take hold. And as more IT departments become more comfortable with BYOD strategies and mobile work options, the more this trend will accelerate.

Here's saying goodby to the laptop-centric world.

Pointers for IT Business Continuity & Pandemics

One topic close to my heart is the concept "working anywhere." Not just telecommuting, but literally working within a distributed workforce.

While the chatter in the market is all about connectivity, I'll point out that a laptop and a VPN aren't sufficient -- there are managerial and organizational issues to take notice of.

Now, some jobs don't need you to "be in the office" and in fact, sometimes being in the office is plain wrong. For example, if you're a salesperson, you're probably in an office 10% of your time, if that much -- so why do companies pay for that permanent office space? The other example of when going to the office is wrong is during a potential Pandemic... As we've seen this week in Mexico, the government has already taken steps to reduce congregating individuals by closing-down the schools. This could easily escalate into voluntary (or mandatory) steps whereby adults need to stay home from the office.

But how would this affect business operations? Most business continuity / continuity of operations (BC/COOP) focus on keeping the IT portion of the business running... but what if there aren't any people to run them?

Lots of content is now being written by industry analysts; In a recent Forrester Research Blog, Stephanie Balaouras writes "Swine Flu? What It Means For IT Professionals"; they cite a recent joint Forrester and Disaster Recovery Journal survey regarding BC strategies.

Gartner Research has also put out a press release "Swine Flu Is a Reason to Act, Not Panic," and Networkworld has a pretty insightful "10 Tips for swine flu planning."

But let me share one aspect that these high-level recommendations don't touch-on as they should: Managing the organization when it's distributed and/or remote.

Getting all of the VPN and laptop technology into the hands of workers is one thing; keeping them functioning as a cohesive group with management oversight and direction is another. If people end up working remotely for 2+ weeks, this becomes a critical issue.

I've spent some serious professional time examining this, particularly with one of the leaders in the field, Sun Microsystems... where a significant fraction of employees are remote/virtual workers. Sun has a mature approach to implementing this, called Sun OpenWork. Check out a very excellent whitepaper on "Managing in a virtual organization"

You should also check out TeleTrips, who specialize in consulting for distributed/virtual organizations, telecommuting programs, scenario planning, and online tools. Whether your enterprise wants to invoke a mobile work program, or just have a BC/COOP plan in place should a disaster occur, these folks help examine work and management practices, facility locations and technology infrastructure, and then put in place the appropriate programs & training.

It's all very different from a laptop and a modem. And should a natural disaster strike (esp. here in sunny CA) people might not be able to, or might be told not to, come to the office. Be prepared.