Citrix 'Project Independence' to isolate PC work and play

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 22 January 2009 10:46

Business IT - Technology

Citrix has come up with an interesting plan to separate the business and personal use of one PC. The implementation will include a new Xen-based hypervisor.

It's unrealistic to expect the typical employee to completely refrain from using a work computer for private purposes. Indeed, many more enlightened employers realise that it can actually help productivity.

For example, fewer productive minutes might be lost by arranging an after-work social meeting via instant messaging than doing it by phone.

And as doing some work at home in the evening is a fact of life for many people, how can an employer expect them to use their own computers for this purpose but not return the favour in the office?

But accessing corporate resources from a home PC is the sort of thing that gets most IT managers worried. How can you be sure that the system is effectively secured and protected against any nasties? Even if you've found a mechanism to check that the security software is active and up to date, there's still a risk that a new piece of malware picked up while visiting even the most respectable site won't compromise business data or systems.

Citrix reckons it has the answer, which is code-named Project Independence.

The idea is that a new hypervisor will run on the PCs, keeping the two environments separate.

Please turn to page 2 for more details.