Patent ID: 7539631

Claim:
A method for providing subscription-based virtual computing services to a subscriber, the method comprising the steps of: enrolling, by a computer system, a subscriber in a subscription-based computing services program for the provision of virtual computing services to the subscriber under the subscription-based computing services program through a virtual non-volatile storage allocated uniquely to the subscriber and accessible to the subscriber via a server computer during a communication session between the server computer and a subscriber device used by the subscriber, the virtual computing services corresponding to configuration options selectable by the subscriber, wherein enrolling by the computer system comprises the steps of receiving selected configuration options from the subscriber via the subscriber device, and configuring the virtual non-volatile storage in accordance with the selected configuration options received from the subscriber; exposing, by the computer system, a user interface having a plurality of portions selectable by the subscriber to specify the configuration options for the virtual computing services including a least: a portion selectable to specify a storage capacity of the virtual non-volatile storage from at least two storage capacity options; a portion selectable to specify an operating system from at least two operating system options, said server computer operable to install a selected operating system to the virtual non-volatile storage to provide the virtual computing services; a portion selectable to specify an application computer software program that is installable into the virtual non-volatile storage of the subscriber device for execution by the server computer during a subsequent communication session with the subscriber device; and a portion selectable to specify whether the server computer is to update the selected operating system when operating system updates become available; enabling, by the computer system, access to and use of the virtual non-volatile storage via the server computer during a communication session between the server computer and the subscriber device, wherein the server computer is configured to use information identifying a type of subscriber device to determine a user interface to be displayed on the subscriber device and used by the subscriber to access the virtual non-volitile storage; and charging, by the computer system, the subscriber in accordance with selected configuration options received from the subscriber.