José Ribamar Smolka Ramos
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WirelessBrasil
Fevereiro 2010 Índice Geral
03/02/10
• Que tal usar seu smartphone como um "Cloud PC"?
de J. R. Smolka <smolka@terra.com.br>
para wirelessbr <wirelessbr@yahoogrupos.com.br>, Celld-group <Celld-group@yahoogrupos.com.br>
data 3 de fevereiro de 2010 09:35
assunto [Celld-group] Que tal usar seu smartphone como um cloud PC?
Pois é... esta é a notícia veiculada hoje pelo site Rethink Wireless...
Possibilidades e mais possibilidades...
[ ]'s
J. R. Smolka
---------------------------------
OK Labs
and Citrix turn phone into a web PC
By CAROLINE GABRIEL
Published: 3 February, 2010
Virtualization has been poised to move from servers to smartphones for some
time, but hasn't turned up in many commercial applications (at least outside
DoCoMo in Japan). Leading specialist VMware sees the emergence of 'cloudbooks'
as a major opportunity, but in the meantime, its open source rival Open Kernel
Labs has crept up behind with a new take on the concept.
OK Labs has worked with the giant of enterprise virtualization, Citrix, to
create a reference design for a virtualized phone, called Nirvana. This revives
an approach with which vendors have played around for years, going back to
efforts of a decade ago such as Intel's Ubiquity personal server project. It, in
effect, replaces the laptop with a phone rather than a dedicated device like a
cloudbook. The handset draws most of its data ans services from the cloud; plugs
into any available monitors and other peripherals; has sufficient processing
power to run local apps when needed; and runs different profiles/operating
systems to suit different behaviors, via virtualization.
Nirvana is not really a phone at all, but a framework that could be incorporated
into any device format, on top of any OS. It consists mainly of an I/O layer and
a hypervisor. It uses Bluetooth to connect to keyboards and a cable to link to a
monitor, though these could be replaced in future by Wireless USB or other
options. There is the choice to connect a mouse, though the demonstration video
shows the touchscreen of the handset functioning as a trackpad.
Such designs shrink the established thin/dumb client into a phone form factor,
and unlike entirely cloud-based devices, also allow the handset's native apps to
be more usable via a larger display and keyboard. As in other mobile
virtualization activities, multiple OS support is possible, so that users can
have different profiles for work and personal use, with the enterprise able to
secure and control the former in the same way as a remote PC.
"The nirvana phone takes smartphones to the next level by bringing M2E [mobile
to enterprise] from paradigm to platform and ultimately to product," said Chris
Fleck, VP of community and solutions development at Citrix, in a statement. "As
HD video and other capabilities come online in mobile chipsets, Citrix and OK
Labs are working together to give OEMs a clear path to building handsets that
meet the needs of IT organizations and mobile workers alike, delivering virtual
desktops and applications to virtualized mobile devices."
The next challenge will be to sign a major OEM partner, and inch ahead of other
nascent options like VMWare and Microsoft's own virtualization system. Steve
Subar, CEO of OK Labs, expects to see Nirvana devices on the market in 12-18
months.