To Secure Laptops, Virtualize Them

When it comes to user support, enterprise IT’s role is rapidly evolving from a top-down, one-size-fits-all model of management and enforcement to a bottom-up, customized model where both hardware and software accommodate individual user needs.

Take, for example, the necessity for IT to accommodate the rise of what Thomas Jankowski calls the neo-nomad: in other words, the mobile worker. These users require greater connectivity and cheaper, lighter laptops so that they can work from the road. They also require the same corporate-level security they’d enjoy from their home office. Jankowski observes that virtualization can make that possible:

“Almost any setup, be it a laptop, a desktop, or even a server, can be packaged into a virtual image and then redeployed on a machine of one’s choice without disrupting the host system. In effect, my protected company laptop can be made to run ‘inside’ of my own laptop.”

Foster’s EMEA uses the virtual desktop principle in its disaster recovery strategy. According to this article on ZDNet, mobile workers can access “an up-to-date virtual replica of their lost laptop” from any of Foster’s European offices in the event of theft or malfunction.

At this point, laptops have proven themselves too valuable to worker productivity for businesses to ever consider eliminating them simply because they present certain security vulnerabilities. That said, it would be foolish for companies not to take measures to protect their physical assets and their data as effectively as they can.