Microsoft embraces 'Bring Your Own Laptop' model

REDMOND, Wash.--You've heard of BYOB, now get ready for Bring Your Own Laptop.

There's a small but growing trend in which companies are choosing to give employees money toward their personal laptop, rather than providing a company-issued portable. British Petroleum is among the companies that is trying the approach.

One of the technologies that is making that possible is desktop virtualization, which allows companies to put their software or even an entire corporate image onto the device without having to worry about the fact that it doesn't control the entire laptop. Basically, the corporate stuff can run in a sandbox, with personal data and programs running alongside--but not intermingling with--the business processes.

For the company, such personally owned laptops can save on support costs and serve as a retention tools for Generation Y-ers, said Lee Nicholls, global solutions director for IT consultant Getronics.

"They have a really high expectation of what they want to work with," Nicholls said. "They want a degree of flexibility."

To make that approach more workable, Microsoft has scooped up a company called Kidaro that allows software running in a virtual machine to run alongside ones running from the main operating system. The deal to buy Kidaro was announced in March and Microsoft said Thursday that the deal has closed. However, Microsoft won't start selling the product itself until sometime in the first half of next year.

Microsoft's Shanen Boettcher said that type of virtualization approach is still a very niche concept. The use of any type of desktop virtualization is still small, he said, but over time its use will grow and Kidaro will help in making an experience that is more palatable to individuals.

"It's early on," said Boettcher, a general manager in Microsoft's Windows unit. "Less than 1 percent of desktops run some virtualization today."

[Penguinisto]

It has been proven that a decently-crafted bit of malware can and will easily break out of a VM instance and poison the host machine (and certainly vice-versa). Now couple that with the (not unreasonable) concept that if I'm going to be using my own machinery to perform company work, I had damned well better be compensated for doing so. Also, what about company rules regarding what's on the computer if the computer belongs to the employee? Some jerkweed dragging in a pr0n-heavy laptop could easily land the company in lawsuit territory, and the corp has no say-so over what an individual puts onto his or her private property. To make a long story short: Stupid Idea, Microsoft.

[alt117]

Except that the idea isn't Microsoft's. And they do get compensated. Did you read the article?

"There's a small but growing trend in which companies are choosing to give employees money toward their personal laptop, rather than providing a company-issued portable. British Petroleum is among the companies that is trying the approach."

Many companies provide reimbursement for employees using their own tools. This just treats a computer like the basic tool it has become.

[fortyonejb]

did you ignore his name? its "penguinisto", clearly any response he writes will be a knee-jerk "M$ SUCKS" comment.

But seriously, porn heavy laptop? What makes you think the individual wouldn't have done so with a company laptop. Obviously you have NEVER serviced company laptops.

Long story short, bleh.

[mgmackoul]

I have been anticipating this to happen. Very few companies can afford to buy the latest laptops. Most of the time we are given a machine that is over four or more years old and takes over three or four minutes to start. A laptop is like a toolbox and it should have all the tools (software) that we need to do our job. We should not be limited by what the company has installed. Virtualizing another OS is great thing. I have been using it for almost three years and it allows me to install multiple VPN for different clients on one machine. It also allows me to connect to network resources (like file servers), that require the same shared name (X:, Y: etc) for different clients. For IT departments, deploying a new or updated desktop will be much easier and little time consuming (money saving) with virtualization.

[The_Decider]

When IP secrets are lost, customers private data made public, how much will this save people?

If a 4 year old laptop takes 3-4 minutes to boot, it is time for a reinstall not a new computer.

[cjb8465]

A better idea: have everyone connect to a Linux server running VNC or NX, and it will all run the same, whether they have a quad core with Vista or a 486 with Windows 95.

[The_Decider]

Horrible idea. Who owns the data on the privately owned laptop used at work?

Yet another boneheaded idea from the masters of boneheaded ideas.

[The_Decider]

@alt117

And it ignores the reality and danger of putting private corporate data on a personal machine. That is the high of corporate irresponsibility. There are more than enough idiots walking around with private data in laptops and USB drives, we don't need to add to it.

It may not be MS's idea but like the shortsighted idiots that they are they are running with it

It is loaded with serious security issues, which is why MS is tackling it. They haven't met a security hole that they haven't fallen in love with.

[dbargen]

The bigger issue at hand: MS simply can't sell enough Vista. Period. Stop gap solutions to get people used to using it side-by-side with the version of windows that still works just goes to show how poor of a piece of hardware it really is.

Is it just me, or has MS seen more and more desperate lately?

[thedreaming]

Just imagine everyone at Microsoft bringing in Macbook Pros stating, "This is my personal laptop and if you're going to make me do work on it, this is what I'll be doing the work on!" It's a bad idea on so many levels, but they don't care. They just want to save a few bucks and look at what their employees use at home.