Lock Down

If changes can't be made manually or accidentally then they are very likely to work!

A locked down and secure computing environment is a often expressed ideal in computing. This isn't an impossible goal, it is simply that maintenance changes are required and often must be carried out with security safeguards off.

Maintenance changes are often complex and, with all the best intentions in the world, are not repeated in live customer facing environments in exactly the same way after testing.

How can we have our proverbial "security cake" and, eat it?

Automation is the key...

Time for a change...

Imagine if every "change" to any computer was completely automated and optionally shared for a community to try...

From the moment a new computing device is turned on, all software is deployed in a precise and pre-tested manor.

Some side affects:

• Easily repeatable (and therefore testable) computing.
• No manual error.
• Self documenting and sharable configurations.

I guess it's not completely new - we have "more" reliable computing with fully automated changes from "closed" computing systems like TV set-top boxes (cable / satellite) and of coarse more recently the iPhone!

I have some ideas about how this can be achieved for commodity computing without the "lock in" of existing platforms...