Tabula Rasa
Intel R&D is already succeeding with IS/R in the lab, and it will be easiest to put Suspend/Resume–ready, "blank" computer infrastructure in place in the enterprise, which is more "lab-like," than in the back seats of cabs. Customers may not even want you to use their computers. The lab has a research topic on how to put together a security policy that would address the issue, but that's years down the road. And let's go back to the coffee shop. "You should be able to go to Starbucks and use a computer as if it were your own," says Kozuch. "You can't do that today—partly because the coffee shop would have to adopt the infrastructure (the "blank" computers), and partly because you wouldn't want hackers to steal your information." Here's the big bottom line, according to Kozuch: "The coffee shop doesn't really have an incentive to put this technology in their coffee shop until they see that many users have it in their workplaces."
Instead of working from the coffee shop angle, Kozuch says, "Enable the IT infrastructure. When I go home, I'll contact that server and say, 'Please bring my work home.' [IT and ubiquitous computing] are complementary, once you have that infrastructure in place."
The Intel Lab will be pushing past the prototype, working with volunteers in the fall of 2004 and going for the next two years, and hopes to see Internet Suspend/Resume working within an Intel, Merrill Lynch, or IBM within five years—and even as a shrink-wrapped solution in five years.
As for the coffee shop timetable? They're suspending estimates on that.