Management of Application
Virtualization Environments
• Application virtualization isolates application from the clients by
deploying it on remote server.
• Eliminates complexity of required resources.
• Access via public or private network, using a web browser
Steps involved
• Packing the application
• Delivering application to the target system
• Executing application in virtual environment
Implementation
• File I/O redirection
• Registry redirection
• Com isolation
• .Net isolation
• Service isolation
• Delivery isolation
Advantages
• No more installation
• Improves patch management
• Faster deployment
• Notable cost reduction
• Optimized security
Challenges
• Support for different technologies
• Disaster Recovery
• Availability
• Scalability
• Performance Monitoring
• Security
• Access
• Legal
VMWare ThinApp
• VMware offers ThinApp which is an application virtualization and portable
application creator suite that facilitates packaging of conventional
applications with a success rate of 90 -95 percentage.
Features of ThinApp
● Allows applications to run individually that exist isolated from
other applications.
● Packages applications into executable files (.msi, .dat & .exe)
that can be encapsulated from the other applications and OS.
● Isolation modes are Full, Merged and Writecopy isolation.
● Deployment methods are Electronic software distribution,
Streaming, Using portable media and VMWare view.
Microsoft Application Virtualization(App-V)
• Microsoft App-V is an IT administrator tool used to remotely run
applications and stream to end users.
• Component of Microsoft Desktop Optimization pack(MDOP).
• Addresses the common IT operational challenges faced by customers.
• It delivers the Win32 Applications to users as virtual applications.
• App-V is a dynamically streaming software service, managed centrally.
• Highly scalable, fault tolerant and highly available.
• Capable of running apps with different versions without installing it locally.
• Users can share the same machine where they will only be able see their
respective application assigned.
App-V Architecture and Features
• Supports license management.
• Provides features to indicate app location.
• Management Console 3.0 for server
administration.
• App-V SQL Database to store app data and
groups.
• IIS installed to communicate read and write
requests with data store.
• Sequencer to monitor and capture
installations.
• App-V client manages the cache streams
and the packages to Management server.
Citrix XenApp
• One of the leading Application Virtualization software.
• Hosting Apps on remote servers rather than installing on local machines.
• Released in 2008 – after XenSource acquisition by Citrix.
• Earlier releases – mid 1990s – known by names – WinFrame,
MetaFrame, Presentation Server.
• Widely used by over 100 million users.
Features
• Applications centrally managed in remote data centers or
servers.
• Server based computing.
• Virtualizes windows applications.
• Uses FlexCast Management Architecture (FMA).
• Adopts HDX technology to virtualize apps.
• XenApp editions/pricing models – Fundamentals, Advanced,
Enterprise, Platinum.
Current Developments
• Aimed at mobile devices and smartphones.
• Focusing on improving performance in hybrid models.
• Single embedded console for monitoring application
virtualized infrastructures.
• Agent based, Agent less and decentralized management of
services.
• Container hosted applications instead of VMs which are costly.
Future Trends
• Eradicates the need to provision complex legacy systems.
• Decentralized applications.
• Handled by Microservices.
• Move applications to the edge of the network - Edge
Computing.
• Virtualized applications in Mobile phones - Mobile Cloud
Computing.
Thank you!
