Mark Dean

Atlanta

Sr. Systems Engineer

Instead of giving them a company laptop or any other equipment, many companies are having them come in via a web browser and get provisioned a virtual desktop via Citrix or via RDP in a VMware ESX farm. There is also the option of using VMware ACE to provision a virtual machine that is on a DVD or even a USB key (I've also used my iPOD to run a virtual machine) which can be locked down in various ways like no transfering of files to host PC or no USB keys, etc. and also make it so only the virtual machine can VPN into the corporate network. This way, there is no need to have a 'right to enter' to recover equipment and the company's security policies are adhered to. These ACE configured VMs also can have an expiration date. Going virtual is the absolutely best way to make sure company data and employee data never gets mixed in. If more companies did this even on company laptops, then having the laptop stolen would be a non issue as the VM is also encrypted.