The one pervasive theme from this year’s VMworld has been mobility. Although the official positioning has focussed on server-centric models, the media and third party vendors have focussed on how workloads, compute and quality of experience can be moved across devices, using local resources to the fullest. Mobility is the emerging vector in cloud computing and virtualisation, and the reasons for this are clear.
Imagine you’re a new employee in the and it’s your first day on the job. You expect from past experience at other workplaces, that you’ll get an outdated PC, a desk phone, and maybe some training. You also expect that you may be staring at your cubicle walls for some hours before IT gets around to you.
Rather, let’s say you get a visit from your department admin. She hands you a voucher for, say, $1,500, and a thumb drive. The admin explains that the voucher is for purchasing the computing device of your choice, and the the thumb drive authenticates both you *and* your device to the network, where your OS and applications are waiting to be deployed to whatever device you may use.
Welcome to the mobile workplace. If you think this scenario is too far-fetched, it’s time to rethink. Technically, it’s already here.
Traditionally, mobility has meant carrying around a standardized, company-issued PC weighing 8 to 10 pounds, fully loaded with an operating system, a stack of standard applications – many of which you won’t use – and all your data. The more you carry it around, the heavier it seems, and it’s a never-ending chore for you and IT to keep your hardware and software updated, and your data secure.
True mobility, however, provides device independence combined with device targetting. This enables the applications and data to be deployable, employing isolation, to a variety of devices, and grants you access to them from wherever you are. For example, you would choose a device for your corporate work, your home notebook, smartphone, mobile Internet device (MID), etc. Virtualisation technologies would employ a container, provided by your corporate IT, that can run on any hardware that supports the virtualisation platform. IT manages the container, deploying IT applications and data to it on the device. The environment is protected because it runs within a virtual environment employing memory and I/O isolation. Employees could run the IT environment alongside personal applications and data on the same device hardware, keeping both environments safely protected from each other.
Mobility also requires ability to move workloads from device to device, based on immediate needs, and maintain task continuity, is critical to user productivity. Employees performing tasks on one device in transit often need to, or can benefit from, moving to another device at home, or the office. The continuity of performing those tasks requires that the workload be moved, or synchronized, to the other device when that device is accessed. Users can then seamlessly switch from device to device, keeping their tasks intact.
Two major emerging technology trends behind the concept are workspace virtualisation and the consumerisation of IT.
Traditionally, technology became available to enterprises first and spread to consumers later. But a reverse trend—consumerization of IT—is emerging rapidly. A variety of technologies are being adopted by consumers first, who then informally introduce them into the enterprise. As the consumer market explodes with new products—lighter and smaller notebooks, netbooks, and feature-rich MIDs─employees want platforms they’re familiar with from personal use. And they’re using personal devices for work. The reality for IT shops everywhere is that consumer devices are crossing over into the workplace in increasing numbers. This unavoidable osmosis poses a real challenge for IT departments to manage and secure the maverick devices.
In the traditional computing platform model without any virtualisation, the IT applications and data become entwined in the registry, file system, and even the hardware itself. This model is complex and expensive to manage. One of IT’s largest costs is device hardware support. For employees, the model is limiting too, with little choice of client devices and an inability to run IT apps and data seamlessly alongside personal applications and data.
With workspace virtualisation, the entire software environment—applications, data, and IT services—are moved to a low-overhead virtual container and “decoupled” from the underlying subsystems. It can be managed and updated centrally and distributed to a variety of device hardware devices. IT could configure different containers, and distribute them to different hardware platforms. There could be a standard Windows* container, a standard Linux* container, a purely Open Source container, a Software Developer’s container, etc.
The result of implementing consumerisation and virtualisation is a flexible, platform-independent approach that can increase employees’ choices and productivity and allow IT to focus resources on providing and supporting IT services, not on managing the platform.
Combining multiple emerging technologies, a number of vendors have used used standard corporate and consumer notebooks and desktops with Intel® Core™ i5/i7 processors running Windows or Linux. At VMworld, RingCube demonstrated deploying workspace virtualisation technologies and policy management software, using Intel Virtualisation Technology™, illustrating that along with all traditional device functionality, workspace virtualisation was used to access IT applications over the corporate network from home and office locations, clearly illustrating the feasibility of mobility. For more information on the joint RingCube/Intel efforts, see the white paper “Hardware Assisted Workspace Virtualization“.
Multiple technology vendors have defined both strategies and products with the potential to transform the way IT delivers services, including Citrix XenClient, Wanova Mirage, Phoenix Technologies’ HyperSpace, and Parallels Workstation. Combined with the continued media feedback at VMworld 2010, it is apparent that the future is here with true mobility.
