LCD Keyboards to WiFi VOIP Converters, Gadget Demo Highlights - How About a Mobile Server?
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Sometimes an idea that didn’t catch on the first time it hit the market can be brought back to good effect. Realm Systems is counting on it. The Utah-based company is bringing back the small form factor mobile desktop. Only it’s not calling it that, of course. Company CEO Rick White prefers a much catchier moniker: the mobile server.
More precisely, it is called the Mobile Personal Server, or MPS 1400E. The device is about the size of a pack of cigarettes, and plugs into any USB port. It allows users to carry their entire desktop look and feel, applications, files, and customized favorites with them. These can then be “projected” onto another device. Users must authenticate themselves before loading the applications.
This device has a wealth of business uses. In the words of the company, “The Realm device provides a secure and highly mobile computing environment, fully managed by central IT administration, but with no backend infrastructure to deploy and manage.” The Realm MPS uses a built-in thumbprint scanner as part of its security, so even if it is stolen, it does not pose the security risk of a laptop.
It’s also worth noting that the Realm MPS apparently does not interact with the host PC in the ways you might expect, or carry any information itself. Once the MPS docks with a compatible networked host PC, it tunnels into the corporate network and establishes a secure virtual private network. The user interacts with their own applications via the host PC’s keyboard, video, and mouse, but does not need to worry about any of the security risks on the host PC’s platform, “because all that runs on the host PC is a projection of an application’s user interface,” according to Realm. This device has the potential to make a lot of security-conscious systems administrators breathe a little easier and sleep better at night, something we can all use.
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