What Does Persistent Desktop Personalization Mean to You?

There's a lot of buzz in the desktop virtualization world around “Persistent Personalization.” But really, what is it? Clearly nobody wants to lose their work when their desktops are upgraded or patched, or when they need to switch machines (say, thin terminal to notebook). I think we can agree that if we could have our personalization isolated and preserved even when our desktops change, everybody would be happier. IT would be able to deliver the latest patches and applications without worrying about impacting user productivity, and end users would have the flexibility to really customize their desktops for competitive advantage.

But what is far less clear is defining what personalization really means. Some vendors want you to accept that personalization is a subset of your stuff – documents stored in specific directories or D: data volumes, or selected pieces of your Windows Registry that hopefully contain the information you care about. There are a number of these kinds of solutions, usually built around roaming profiles or folder redirection, available today. Yet these are the very same approaches that have been used for years with Terminal Services solutions, with only limited success across some highly specialized use cases.

That's probably because, like most people, I couldn’t imagine having a desktop that loses my user-installed applications, add-ins, and customizations each time IT needs to patch or upgrade my system. But this is exactly what happens with most personalization solutions. Putting my end user hat on for a moment, the difference between an IT-delivered desktop and my desktop is anything and everything I have personally done to change it. If I add an application, it should stick like glue to me. I should be able to seamlessly add extensions and add-ins to IT-delivered applications. If I have a fancy new phone with a custom USB boot driver, it should work and stay with me. All applications, all settings, all data – anywhere and everywhere on my desktop. Doesn’t that just make sense?

But personalization doesn't end there. Just because I want apps to be installed when I want them and need them doesn't mean I want to "own" the management of these apps. So doesn’t personalization also mean that I can select applications, not just from the Internet, a DVD, or a USB key, but from a catalog of applications that IT provides? Heck, if IT has already packaged an application I need, I'd rather choose it over any an app I have to install, configure and support myself.

So, I want all the app customization of a personal PC, with none of the app management headaches. I want IT to manage my applications, make sure my desktop is compliant and secure, and deliver tested good patches so I am always running the best applications. If I need a new app, I should be able to simply ask IT to deliver it directly to my desktop. Better yet, I should be able to use self-service to select the applications I need. Let IT own patching them, but let me have control over which applications I want to use.

This is what persistent personalization means to me. And what Unidesk will soon deliver.

- Chris Midgley
Unidesk Founder and CTO