Application Virtualization

Who would want to use this for a business?

Because of the added portability of the virtualized software, many of the available solutions have included functionality that makes the technology quite a bit more interesting for business use. Software distribution in general can be quite a bothersome task in an environment with a large number of clients and many different software combinations. Keeping everything up to date and properly licensed can also become a time sink. On top of that, issues tend to pop up with installed software all over the place, and updating the software does not always guarantee an improvement. Being able to run two versions of a software package concurrently for testing purposes is not always an option, leaving many system administrators craving a powerful and automated software distribution system.

This is where application virtualization comes into play. Its portability allows it to run in any situation, and its isolation from everything else prevents harm to the rest of the system. This is how several application virtualization solutions have turned the slight disadvantage of needing the management software present on the client into an advantage, since it provides the possibility to add additional functionality. Implementing flexible streaming and software deployment solutions fits right into the idea of application virtualization, and that's why this technology is so interesting.

Application virtualization is a very solid way to accompany the transition from the traditional fat clients to thinner, more easily managed systems. The required software only needs to be virtualized once, and then it can be provided from a central software management server. From there, administrators can decide to deploy certain applications to certain clients, and update/remove them just as easily. The actual users of the software do not notice a difference, and user error recovery becomes much easier, as the administrator can easily roll back any damaging changes to the software.

Currently, many of the available application virtualization solutions are in fierce competition to provide the best possible user experience, which makes for many interesting flavors in this field - and undoubtedly we'll see many new developments in the near future. Businesses interested in implementing an application virtualization solution should therefore research each possibility very carefully, as their options are continually evolving and expanding.

Now, let us have a quick look at some of the interesting solutions currently on the market.