Virtualized Application Delivery
Application virtualization changes the entire method from deployment to delivery. At first
glance, these two words may seem very similar, but in reality, these two methods differ greatly.
Application deployment was all about installing and managing applications on multiple
endpoints, but application delivery is about packaging an application once and delivering the
application to multiple endpoints, for use, without the need for installation.
The power of application virtualization is the separation of the application from the endpoint OS.
This alleviates all the shortcomings that come with a traditional deployment and provides a
number of key benefits:
Ease of management – Applications are now managed using a single image, so updates and
patches are only applied once and delivered everywhere.
Dynamic applications – Because of the ease of packaging and updating virtualized
applications, IT can quickly respond to business changes.
No compatibility issues – Every virtualized application is delivered into an isolated
environment or sandbox on the endpoint. Thus, multiple versions of the same application can
run on a single endpoint.
Data center centric – All virtualized applications reside in the data center improving overall
security and compliance of data and applications.
Branch and remote access – Remote users have quicker access to updated applications
without the lengthy process of deployment on the remote endpoints.
There are two primary methods of application virtualization in use across a growing number of
vendors. The two methods can be categorized as agent-less and agent-based.
Agent-less application virtualization involves the use of an embedded virtual OS that is deployed
as part of the virtualized application. These virtualized applications are fully encapsulated and
able to run as a standalone executable from multiple locations such as a network drive, local
drive, or USB drive.
Agent-based application virtualization utilizes a combination of a profiled or packaged
application, a centralized delivery server, and a locally installed agent on the endpoint. The
agents themselves utilize a kernel-mode driver or service. Some agent-based methods do not
require the centralized delivery server and allow for shortcuts to be presented from a network
share.
Both methods have the ability to stream the applications across the network to the local device.
Streaming allows for immediate execution of the virtualized application from the endpoint while