Why does Chrome OS matter to the Enterprise?

It doesn't. It's all about the mindset and where users learn best: at home. Consumerism has kept IT afloat during the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression and shows no sign of slowing down. I personally can't remember in my career so many users bringing gadgets, phone and netbooks to work with them and asking how they can work from them, such as accessing corporate e-mail, calendar and published applications.

OK, so follow me here. I'm not implying that the Enterprise needs to adopt Google Chrome OS. If you thought that and stopped reading, well, I understand. There is so much discussion on the blogosphere regarding whether or not Chrome OS will be a success; thus reiterating the pros and cons of the web-centric OS would be a waste of your time. I want to look at it from the IT professionals perspective. I want to encourage every IT professional out there to tell everyone to buy a *mature* Chromebook, and here's why:

Thanks to Microsoft, starting with Windows 95, much of the way users use their computer at work has everything to do with the way they use their computer at home. Chrome OS is a browser based OS, but in terms of IT speak it is a 'Thin OS'. Changing the way users play will inevitably change the way users work.

FILES SAVED LOCALLY BY THE USER ARE FILES THAT WILL INVARIABLY BE LOST FOREVER

Redirecting a user's 'My Documents' has been standard procedure for IT Departments for sometime now. For a fact, most users will never take the time to backup their files, so redirection is a good thing. In SMB, laptops are ubiquitous! The fact that Microsoft didn't include tools in Server 2003 to redirect the entire user's profile is extremely short-sighted on their part. Did Microsoft designers/developers ever take a moment and ask themselves who they are really coding for? I do not know. My point with all of this is that we want users to be accustomed to storing files somewhere other than locally. All too often in large enterprises and SMB, files are lost forever because a laptop was stolen, the hard drive shit the bed, the user overwrote an important file, etc. To give them a choice to store the file locally will inevitably lead them to do so. It's not their fault! They really have no idea what they are doing, honest. We have to train them through use at home that this is a baaaad idea.

USER INSTALLED APPS ... SERIOUSLY?

I like the idea of Citrix Dazzle and that users can select the applications they need. That's not what I'm referring to here. If a user brings a disc from home and wants to install said application which has not been vetted by the IT Department, now that's what I'm referring to. The whole notion that a user should be able to install their favorite personal apps on a company owned asset used only for business purposes is solely driven by the fact that the two environments, home and work, look and feel identical to them. We should have never let users have a wallpaper, it was all down hill from there... Chrome OS, users cannot install applications. All their applications are on the web which they know their firewall will block. One less hassle/political battle to fight!

THIN CLIENTS FTW!

All #epicpuns aside, thin clients are especially sexy for IT professionals. Managing clients with nice personalities is about as much fun as getting a lap(top) dance from one. Users will love the features of Thin Clients such as instant-on and no antivirus software subscriptions that eat up all their machines resources and marginally protects them from viruses and malware. They will also enjoy not having to make sure Windows Updates are installed (who has their machine on at 3 AM anyway?). After experiencing this at home users will beg for it at work. And won't we all be happy. :)