As people increasingly use a constellation of devices, such as PCs, laptop computers, tablets, and smart mobile devices, they are facing a persistent problem. They wonder how to keep their preferences, contact lists, calendars, user data and the like synchronized across all of the devices now and what in the world are they going to do when they move to cloud-based services. AppSense believes that it has an answer. AppSense calls this “User Virtualization” even though virtual machine software may not be in use and the user is not being placed into an artifical environment. After all, there may be laws against this in many places.
All seriousness aside, AppSense has been able to help organizations move PC users from Windows XP to Windows 7, from physical environments into virtual environments and then on into cloud computing environments. The company has big ideas about how those same ideas can help as people increasingly adopt tablets and smartphones.
At first, the company is likely to focus on synchronizing Email accounts and Browser favorites. Later, as the technology matures, sychronizing a device’s data files and moving data into and out of cloud storage are likely additions.
I’m waiting to learn more as they roll out this technology because it could make my life a bit easier. It would be good to keep watching this company.
