Portable Personality: Freeing your users to work anywhere on any device

Presenter: Neil MacDonald

"A portable personality is a set of tools and technologies that decouples users from dependence on a specific computing workstation or device, by enabling them to recreate their preferred environment on any device."

What technologies are available? How will portable personalities evolve?

Looking at convergence between:

• Portable personality (ensuring I get my stuff)
  
• Secure workspace (ensuring the workspace is secure anywhere)
  
• Provisioning (getting a user's environment to them quickly).
  

My stuff: preferences, applications, data and workspace. User content is decoupled from the device. Packaged in a logical container (e.g. USB Stick, a server—one that we own, or one in the cloud, cell phone). Deliver it to the end machine (either physically or through the network). All has to happen in a secure and trusted environment.

Approaches:

• Remote presentation (Citrix, Sun Ray)
  
• Trusted Remote Access (RedCannon, MobiKEY) don't take data or applications
  
• Modified Portable Application (U3, PortableApps) do not virtualize, so does not work for Office Applications
  
• Portable Windows Application (RingCube, Ceedo) applications think they are working on windows.
  
• Portable operating system (VMWare, Sentillion, Moka5, Kidaro) need a licenced copy of windows
  
• Portable processor (Realm Systems) – ARM Processor running Linux on a package as small as a memory stick…
  

Security is a key consideration. How does the USB key protect itself from the kiosk into which it is inserted? Examines the kiosk at the point that it is inserted into the kiosk.

Inhibitors:

• Drivers: demand to leave notebook at home; growing broadband availability; desktop virtualization; increasing flash densities.
  
• Inhibitors: lack of tools for personality packaging, distribution and updates; vendor licensing for portable OS and applications; non-trusted target systems. Security is the single biggest inhibitor.
  

Moka5 needs 1-2GB, MojoPac needs 2-3GB, VMWare Pocket Ace 3-4 GB. Could every student get a 16 Gig memory stick to carry their personality with them anywhere—all the applications go with them, any machine in the library (or anywhere) becomes their machine when they sit down.

Management of the device is a new kind of headache—remote kill of lost devices; ensuring that devices are updated…

Key questions to determine a vendor:

1. Will users ever require off-line access?
   
2. On your network?
   
3. Do you want Microsoft windows applications off-line?
   

   Either application virtualization (RingCube Softricity), or virtualize hardware (Pocket ACE Moka5, Kidaro)
   

   
    

Worth looking at RingCube MojoStation—used to virtualize a working environment on any PC running windows.

Worth looking at Moka5 LivePC—encrypted USB stick with full copy of windows—to establish secure VPN to home office and data.

 

By 2010, there will be significant growth in portable personality. Mobility, security and provisioning will be transforming. For the university, can we use portable personality to make our IT provision greener (for example, will this help us to ensure that the complete workspace is available for remote working, remote learning?).