Distributing, Updating and Managing Virtual Software Applications Quickly and Cost Effectively
The term “virtualization” has become the rage initiative for many of today’s IT managers. It offers the promise of a true balance between increased productivity and reduced costs for global enterprises and small emerging companies alike. Yet virtualization itself means different things to different organizations depending on their strategies and objectives. While the definitions of virtualization vary, there are essentially three main virtualization types—hardware virtualization, operating system virtualization and application virtualization.
LANDesk has unveiled a new solution known as LANDesk® Application Virtualization powered by Thinstall that enables organizations to quickly deploy, update, and manage virtual applications through the flagship LANDesk® Management Suite technology with minimal changes to their existing infrastructure. This new application virtualization solution is timely for current LANDesk customers and other organizations considering migration to Microsoft Vista because migration could expose application conflicts with key, but not yet Vista-certified, applications. Combining application virtualization with LANDesk’s core set of Vista migration tools can eliminate those conflicts and greatly simplify the move to Vista.
LANDesk Application Virtualization powered by Thinstall uses a client-less application virtualization architecture that allows applications to be run from any LAN, WAN, USB, CD-ROM drive, etc., with zero-footprint on the host PC. The applications, packaged into simple EXE files and distributed via LANDesk Management Suite, are isolated or sandboxed from the host PC and run exclusively in user mode. This ensures seamless execution on locked-down desktops with no device drivers installed, enabling administrators to maintain a secure, clean and stable user desktop. LANDesk Application Virtualization can transparently stream large applications from a shared network drive with no client or server software to install, as well as run the application “off-line” on the PC without installation or changes to the local desktop’s registry and file system.
The subject of this whitepaper is how LANDesk Application Virtualization powered by Thinstall helps organizations significantly reduce: 1) the time and costs of regression testing; 2) end-user support costs and associated downtime caused by DLL and other application conflicts; 3) the cost of maintaining secure, locked-down desktops; 4) the need to create machine silos for specific applications; and 5) the risks associated with OS or application upgrades.
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