There are many ways lose your shirt in the ASP business. Develop an innovative solution for a problem that doesn't exist. Solve a business problem that is here today but gone tomorrow. Expect customers to adapt their business to your service. Silicon Valley startup uRoam has thus far managed to avoid these pitfalls.
This secure "anytime, anywhere" desktop access provider plans to help data service providers—ISPs, ILECs, and CLECs—serve two rapidly-growing markets. According to uRoam, there are 14.3 million mobile professionals today, a bountiful $2.2B market. And many workers carry WAP-enabled phones and wireless PDAs—a market projected to exceed $15B by 2002. What corporate traveler hasn't forgotten a file or yearned for a peek at email while out of the office? uRoam provides secure remote access to home or office PCs from any device with Internet access and an off-the-shelf browser.
Look Ma, no client
The key ingredient in this recipe is the absence of client software. Mobile professionals can walk into a nearby Internet cafe, stop at an airport web kiosk, or whip out a PalmPilot, log into uRoam, and gain encrypted, authenticated access to a host computer.
uRoam adjusts to the client device, rendering output in HTML or WML format as needed by the browser. Netscape and Internet Explorer, ProxiWeb on the PalmPilot, GoAmerica on the RIM BlackBerry, and micro-browsers on Neopoint and Sprint phones are supported now. AvantGo and OmniSky are also supported, with some limitations.
Browser-based solutions are great, but not when they make users jump through hoops. With solutions like HotOffice, you must upload files before you need them, then remember which version is current. "Our solution gives you browser access to your own desktop, with 128-bit SSL protection," said uRoam VP of Sales George Finnerty.
Anytime, anywhere desktop access
Finnerty introduced me to uRoam at a local Kinkos, using a public PC and his own PalmPilot. On each, he launched a browser, logged into uRoam, and entered a password. Browsers were then redirected to Finnerty's own desktop PC, back at his West Chester, Penn. office.
On Finnerty's desktop PC ran a compact 4 MB uRoam agent and web server. This software is compatible with any Win32 desktop, including those running Windows 2000 or ME. (Users with MacOS desktops are out of luck.) An extensible collection of weblets act as middleware between the uRoam server and desktop applications. For example:
* "Your Screen" is a remote host control weblet. Think PC Anywhere, but with greater security and far less hassle. When using a Java-enabled browser, "Your Screen" is nearly the same as being back at the office. On devices that lack Java, HTML menus simulate mouse activity - less elegant, but still quite usable.
* "Your Files" is a resource sharing weblet. Picture a secure Network Neighborhood on steriods. View, open, zip, upload, or download files stored on local drives or network fileshares. Send documents to a printer or fax on your office LAN. Use "View" to access any file that can be rendered as a .gif - no application is required on the client. Or use "Open" to run an application on the client that edits a file on the desktop. There's no need to upload your work when done; uRoam leaves nothing behind on the client PC.
* Microsoft Outlook users can avoid inbox replication and synchronization hassles by checking mail on their primary desktop. My favorite feature: forward attachments without downloading them to your handheld by dropping filenames into a "shopping cart," attached to an Outlook message. If you've spent any time reading mail on a WAP phone or PalmPilot, then you know how helpful these optimizations can be.
The company expects to develop other common weblets to meet market demands. Quicken, camera, and jukebox weblets are among those already developed. Custom weblets can provide access to backoffice systems - for example, uRoam developed a weblet to browse schedules in a physician's database.
Under the covers
uRoam leverages the storage, streaming, and on-line collaboration background of its founders: CEO Michael Herne, VP of Engineering Igor Plotnikov, and CTO Alexander Sokolsky. Since its launch in 1998, uRoam has focused on inventing, proving, and refining the patent-pending technologies needed to make roaming desktop access secure, flexible, and easy-to-use.
These founders identified and addressed security concerns that plague today's road warriors. SSL is an obvious choice for confidentiality of corporate data sent over the Internet, without added client software. But uRoam goes further than most. Not only are the user and desktop authenticated by uRoam, but a shared secret known only to the user is required for desktop access. uRoam does not proxy traffic; the browser and desktop communicate directly. Because nothing is cached at the browser, private data and credentials are never left on a public PC after the session ends.
URoam engineers also realized the importance of connection independence. Browsers can connect over wireline or wireless; the uRoam agent adapts content as needed. Desktops can connect to the Internet over any media, including DSL, cable, ISDN, or dial-up. If a dial or ISDN agent is inactive when access is requested, uRoam calls the agent to bring it on-line. As long as the desktop PC is powered on, with a modem to answer incoming calls, uRoam can reach it. uRoam and the desktop authenticate each other, then drop the call. The desktop dials back out to the Internet. uRoam redirects the browser to the desktop's (possibly dynamic) IP address, and an SSL session is established between the desktop and browser. This entire setup took about a minute during Finnerty's demonstration.
http://www.isp-planet.com/services/uroam1.html
