Intel and Citrix partner on virtual clients

An Intel-Citrix initiative extends centralised client virtualisation to mobile users

Intel and Citrix are aiming to make client systems easier to secure and manage by virtualising the user environment and linking it to a Citrix-based management infrastructure, the Citrix Desktop Delivery Solution.

Under an initiative called Project Independence, desktop and laptop PCs will do away with the host operating system. Instead, a bare-metal hypervisor embedded in the firmware will operate virtual machines running a standard corporate image delivered from the datacentre.

The idea is to offer both mobile and office users the benefits of centralised client virtualisation, but keeping the advantages of local execution and a personalised PC environment.

One advantage of this architecture is that workers can be allowed a virtual machine for personal use that is completely isolated from the corporate environment, helping to prevent malware attacks, according to Intel and Citrix.

"The user gets the full experience of a modern laptop with great graphics and near-native virtualisation performance for different workloads," said Ian Pratt, vice president for advanced virtualisation products at Citrix.

Another advantage is that firms need fewer images, since the virtual clients are decoupled from the hardware of whichever desktop or laptop they run on.

The link back to the datacentre also promises better management control over laptops, which are often off-site and therefore miss critical updates pushed out by administrators.

"Virtual machines can be delivered over the network using an advanced synchronisation protocol to enable them to be rapidly deployed and efficiently updated," said Pratt.

"In the datacentre, you build an image and sync it down to the clients over the network. When a desktop connects, it checks for updates. You can push the same image out to thousands of users, who can just pick up the deltas [differences]."

In the reverse direction, any changes to the virtual machine, such as user-created documents or emails, are synchronised back to the datacentre to create a backup.

"If you lose your laptop, you can then synchronise your entire environment down to a replacement system," Pratt said.

IT administrators will also be able to apply policies controlling the behaviour of the virtual client, determining whether devices such as USB Flash drives plugged into the laptop can be accessed or not.