I saw this "PC on a stick" post on engadget, and it caught my eye because General Motors CIO Terry Kline was very jazzed on this concept when we met with him late last year.Lockheed Martin's marketing this with IronKey.

GM had a similar concept in its labs when we met with GM (unsure of the vendors involved), and Kline considered it very likely GM would have this in place this year. GM has about 100,000 desktops, so it would be a big endorsement for this concept. The approach fits Kline's goal to make it easier for employees to use their personal PCs to do GM work. Here's an excerpt about this from our story late last year:

It's also trying to make employees more productive at home, recognizing that 9 to 5 doesn't fit a global business. It's testing something it calls "GM online," or "desktop on a stick." It's a virtual PC environment on a USB drive that, when used with a home PC connected to the Internet, will give employees their full Windows 7-based GM desktop, with security settings and VPN. It will save employees from having to lug their PCs home at night, let the company issue fewer laptops, and cut the pain of loss or theft. "Someone steals a 1-gig stick that's encrypted, we kill it and go buy a new one for $15," Kline says.

CIOs will need this kind of creativity, as they're pressured to offer desktop experiences that are more flexible and more consumer-device friendly. What do you think -- might this solve a problem for your company?

Related recent posts: Encryption Can Get Board's Attention Google Chrome OS Coming. Got A Netbook Strategy? For You, iPhone, Anything Can Windows 7 Go Viral? Global CIO: General Motors CIO On 4 Essential IT Skills