Kingston Digital to Create Certified USB Flash Drive for Windows To Go

A developing trend of late in business has been the “bring your own device” movement, where employees use their own smartphones or tablets for work instead of relying on company issued equipment. Now Kingston wants to step this up a notch with the announcement that it is planning on offering the entire Windows 8 experience on a bootable USB flash drive.

Called “Windows to Go”, this a new feature in Windows 8 Enterprise that allows for a full corporate desktop on an external USB drive enabling users to boot and operate from multiple PCs. Kingston says that their new Kingston DataTraveler Workspace USB Flash drive is the first available that has full Windows 8 certification requirements — meaning it can provide SSD-like performance.

“We are excited to have Kingston as an associate on Windows To Go. Our joint innovation will further enable mobile work styles. Kingston’s DataTraveler Workspace will give our customers the performance and endurance required to deliver a great experience when running Windows 8 Enterprise from a USB drive,” said Karri Alexion-Tiernan, Director of Product Marketing, Windows Enterprise, Microsoft in a statement.

“Kingston has been working together with Microsoft for over a year in developing a USB Flash drive capable of meeting the requirements of Windows To Go. We are excited to offer this drive to our enterprise customers later this year,” said Andrew Ewing, Flash memory business manager, Kingston.

“We appreciate the work from Genesys Logic, Inc., who have helped ensure that the drive is compatible and can boot from the latest systems. Kingston would also like to recognize the work of LSI Corporation in helping to ensure the forthcoming USB Flash drive with their SandForce Flash Storage Processor meets the performance requirements of Windows To Go.”

Kingston currently has a beta version of the drive available for enterprises or organizations in need of evaluating the Windows To Go feature of Windows 8 Enterprise. For more information visit www.kingston.com/wtg.