Patent ID: 8489719

Claim:
A method comprising: storing a plurality of virtual disks on one or more storage devices, wherein a separate one of the plurality of virtual disks is associated with each separate computing device of a plurality of computing devices, wherein each virtual disk of the plurality of virtual disks comprises an image that includes: an Operating system (OS) for the associated computing device; one or more applications for a user of the computing device; a machine profile associated with the computing device; user data and settings that are specific for the user of the computing device; sending, to a particular computing device of the plurality of computing devices, at least a bootable portion of the OS from a particular image in a particular virtual disk, of the plurality of virtual disks, that is associated with the particular computing device; instantiating the bootable portion of the OS on the particular computing device based on the machine profile included in the particular image; receiving, from the particular computing device, changes made by a particular user to each of the OS, the one or more applications, the machine profile, and the user data and settings on the particular computing device; updating, on the one or more storage devices, the particular virtual disk associated with the particular computing device by applying the changes to each of the OS, the one or more applications, the machine profile, and the user data and settings that are included in the particular image.