The Internet Suspend/Resume® (ISR) model of mobile computing cuts the tight binding between PC state and PC hardware. By layering a virtual machine on distributed storage, the ISR system lets the VM encapsulate execution and user customization state; distributed storage then transports that state across space and time.

The world we envision will retain the user customization aspect of personal computing. However, computers themselves will become a ubiquitous resource, much like light at the flip of a switch, water from a faucet, or the air we breathe. On demand, any Internet-connected computer could temporarily become your personal computer. Any machine will be able to acquire a user's unique customization and state from a server. When a user is done, his or her moditified state is erased from that machine and returned to the server. Loss, theft, or destruction of the machine will become only a minor inconvenience, not a catastrophic event.

The capabilities of the ISR model are realized through a combination of two well-studied technologies: virtual machine technology and distributed storage management systems. Virtual machine technology is used to capture the user's computing environment at the time of suspend. This environment consists of the user's operating system, applications, data files, customizations and the current execution state. By leveraging virtual machines, this state is re-instantiated directly on the machine at the resume site. This is not a thin-client approach. All process execution and computation takes place on hardware near the user. Therefore, an ISR system is able to provide the low-latency interactivity that users have come to expect.