How about this strange idea, Remote Office Live CD?

Now initially it sounds strange, having a remote office server, running with a live CD, but it does have some really unique potential.

You run a small to medium sized business, where 80% of your workforce works, or could work from home. They all require access to the company database, using ancient software which doesn’t support VPN or other complex networking technology. So, how do you deploy out a database server to 50 plus employees who may only have 1 physical computer at home? Simple, a live CD. Build a live cd, with virtualization, and a virtual database server on the first CD, and then use a second cd, flash card or external hard drive for the database. Or, have the virtual machine updated itself using VPN on boot.

If your database, for example merchandise catalog is only updated bi-weekly, then just send out a second CD or new flash drive every other week. The live CD means that no matter how much crap is on the computer at the house, it won’t affect the “company business”, due to no local access.

If you need to update anything on the operating system, send out a new first CD. Due to the nature of a livecd, there is very little risk of a long term virus lasting any longer then the power cycle of the computer.

From an IT standpoint this would make home office support so easy. All users would be guanteed the same desktop experience every time they turn their computer on. No more problems of the kids homework taking over that system you sent them home with for “company business.”

The same idea would work well for sending out demo software to clients, something Microsoft is testing now with their Virtualization products. They offer a collection of VHDs, for testing, which “could”, possible be loaded onto a virtual machine off a boot cd. This isn’t an optimal setup, but it would possibly work:

PC -> Linux Boot LiveCD -> Linux Distro -> VMware -> VHD converted to VMware -> Vista

This allows you to build a Vista boot CD.

Sources:
OpenVZ Virtualization Software Available with CentOS On ‘Live CD’ To Simplify Trial Usage
Virtualization For Everyone in Ten Minutes or Less and XenExpress
Xenfire 2.0
Run IT on a Virtual Hard Disk