1. A method for managing distributed data in an information management system, comprising: defining an information management policy for multiple different computing devices having data objects and associated with the information management system, wherein the multiple computing devices and the data objects are associated with a user, wherein the user is one of multiple users associated within an organization, wherein the multiple computing devices include at least one mobile computing device, wherein the defining includes receiving input from an administrator of the information management policy, the user associated with the multiple computing devices, or both the administrator and the user, wherein the input selects which ones of the data objects to collect, manage and distribute in accordance with the information management policy, and wherein the input selects which ones of the multiple computing devices to which to distribute the selected data objects; analyzing the data objects to generate an identifier for each data object; indexing the identifier for each of the data objects in an object index, wherein the object index associates a logical location of each data object with the respective identifier of each object; receiving at least some of the data objects from the multiple computing devices, wherein not all of the data objects exist on all of the multiple computing devices; creating copies of the selected data objects in accordance with the information management policy; creating a preview version for each of the selected data objects to enable the user to preview at least a portion of content of the selected data objects, wherein the preview version is based at least partially on the capabilities of the computing device that will display the preview version to the user; and distributing the copies and the preview version of the selected data objects to the selected ones of the multiple computing devices in accordance with the information management policy.