TechAgility

So along with Alessandro I’m curious as to why the name ThinApp has been chosen as it does have more than a passing resemblance to Citrix’s new XenApp?

I wonder if this is any indication of the coming marketing campaigns in the push for customers attention in the Desktop Virtualization market?

VMware ThinApp is the final name for Thinstall technology

In January 2008 VMware, a hardware virtualization company, acquired an application virtualization startup called Thinstall.
The plan is to use the Thinstall technology to stream virtualized applications on the virtual desktops that VMware spawns through its connection broker: the Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM).

So fare VMware has been pretty fast in rebranding the Thinstall Application Virtualization Suite: the beta program for the new version is open since end of February and the testers can already download the beta 2.
The final version of the product, temporarily called Project North Star, is expected for the H2 2008.

The only information missing so far was the final name that VMware wants to use.
Now Micheal Keen, Director and Senior Solutions Architect in the Enterprise Architecture group at Alliance Technologies, reveals that the final name is ThinApp.

Duncan Epping further validates the news reporting that a former Thinstall employee confirmed.

The choice is interesting considering that Citrix just renamed its Presentation Server product in XenApp.

virtualization.info: VMware ThinApp is the final name for Thinstall technology

written by dcaddick

Justin Zarb has a blog linked below that comes up with some very useful bits of info relating to SoftGrid, these Visio Stencils just happen to represent the "eye candy" ;-)  , there is loads more and this is an extremely usefully resource if you’re quite involved in SoftGrid Sequencing?

SoftGrid Visio Stencils

It must have been at least 3/4 months ago I came across these stencils and I said than I would blog about them….. well as you can tell I never did!

ubba cool stencils for visio when your designing all your pretty high level design for application virtualization.

The World Simplified is a Virtual World : SoftGrid Visio Stencils

written by dcaddick

It is something of a shame that Symantec is not making the best of this acquisition, especially when you consider the amount of change and hype in the Virtualization space over the last 14 months since Symantec announced the purchase?

I made the comment only a few weeks ago (Thinstall quick out of the blocks) that it was quite gratifying to see good technology not sitting by the sidelines waiting for the politics and marketing to settle before it can again back on with getting the work done - but in this case it looks like Symantec are still dragging the chain?  

Symantec creates an Endpoint Virtualization Business Unit

Friday, March 21, 2008   |   0 Comments

After over one year since the acquisition, Symantec is finally operating the integration of Altiris in its corporate departments.

It’s not clear anyway if and in which way the security giant will pitch the successful Altiris application virtualization product: SVS.

The subsidiary in fact will disappear inside the Symantec Security and Compliance department, while a brand new Endpoint Virtualization department will be created, as reported by eWeek.

There are no details available yet but this reorganization may mean just two things:

• the first option is that Symantec plans to use SVS only to deliver virtualized versions of its endpoint security agents (the anti-virus is probably the first in the list)
• the second option is that Symantec will seriously enter the corporate desktop virtualization market, a space where VMware, Microsoft and few others are already busy with VDI, application virtualization and virtual machines security wrappers

In the first case Altiris SVS would be clearly out of the application virtualization market. In the second case Symantec may soon need more than just SVS to compete with the other players.

virtualization.info: Symantec creates an Endpoint Virtualization Business Unit

written by dcaddick

It’s good to see quality products don’t always have to languish in no-man’s land following an acquisition? Hopefully they haven’t lost too much steam and can maintain their enthusiasm? It now just remains to see how VMware integrates this component in to the bigger picture?

VMware Project North Star Beta (Thinstall) (for Windows Systems)

Latest Version: Beta | 3/05/08 | Build 3.350

What’s Coming
Upcoming enhancements in the VMware Project North Star release:

• Expand the production services and product quality :
  VMware 24/7 Gold and Platinum Support
  VMware QA
  VMware Professional Services Solution Offerings
  VMware Educational Services
• New Features:
  Application Link – Connect virtual application packages to enable streamlined deployment.
  Application Sync – Fast, low-bandwidth update model for deployed virtual applications.

Getting Started

1. If you are new to application virtualization (Thinstall), watch our introduction webinar, or read the many case studies, whitepapers or information available on our website: www.thinstall.com
2. Read the documentation
   The VMware Project North Star Beta (Thinstall) documentation contains the necessary information regarding this release, including summary of features, known issues, system requirements plus how to install, setup, and configure this release.
3. Download the VMware Project North Star Beta (Thinstall) installer.
4. Start using the product
   Refer to the VMware Project North Star Beta (Thinstall) release notes and documentation for detailed information on installing and using the software.

VMware Project North Star Beta (Thinstall) feedback and support options

Your opinion matters most to us. Please submit your feedback using the VMware Project North Star Beta (Thinstall) discussion forum. Please post your suggestions, problems, and experiences to the discussion forum at your convenience.

Technical Support

The VMware Project North Star Beta (Thinstall) is open to the public and not supported by VMware until the product becomes generally available. Any support questions or problems should be reported to the Project North Star Beta (Thinstall) forum.

VMware Project North Star Beta (Thinstall) - VMware

written by dcaddick

So this certainly adds some ammunition for VMware’s coming stoush with Microsoft in the Battle of the Hypervisors?

It makes you wonder who’s next on VMware’s radar?

VMware acquires Thinstall

Just yesterday virtualization.info published the news about a possible acqusition of VMware in the application virtualization market, speculating that the acquired firm could be FastScale.

The official announcement comes today, clarifing the actual acquired company and the company strategy behind the move:

VMware, Inc. , the virtualization software leader, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Thinstall, a privately-held application virtualization software company headquartered in San Francisco. VMware is acquiring Thinstall to expand its desktop virtualization capabilities which help customers better provision, deploy and update desktop environments. The terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be completed in the current fiscal quarter, subject to customary closing conditions, were not disclosed…

The acquisition of Thinstall and its use for VDI scenarios extended the competition front with Microsoft (which acquired Softricity application vendor in June 2006) and Citrix, and brings the company a notable set of OEM partnerships: with LANDesk (March 2007), with Provision Networks (July 2007), with BMC (September 2007) and with Macrovision (October 2007).

Given the strong focus of Thinstall on Microsoft platforms, the acquisition seems to validate an important point, often emerging in surveys: large majority of virtual machines contain Windows guest OSes.

At the same time this acquition validates once and forever the fact that application virtualization is considered one the next mainstream technology for most major players: before VMware, Microsoft acquired Softricity, Citrix acquired Ardence, Symantec acquired Altiris and even Google acquired GreenBorder.

Thinstall is the 7th acquisition for VMware. Before it the virtualization player acquired Akimbi (June 2006), Propero (April 2007), Determina (August 2007), Dunes Technologies (September 2007), Sciant (October 2007) and Foedus (January 2008).

If the trend continues VMware will acquire a new company per month.

virtualization.info: VMware acquires Thinstall

written by dcaddick

So now Softgrid is to be known as "Application Virtualization", well at least it does follow the recent trend where some of the Vendors are attempting to call their products by a name that actually describes what it does?   

Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 is Open for Public Beta

And away we go!!!!! Welcome to ITForum and Welcome to Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 Beta!!! The keynote has kicked off with an amazing display of technologies and one that jumped out straight at me was our very own Application Virtualization product!!!!

If you go to connect you can download the open beta of Microsoft update to the SoftGrid product, " Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5" Beta

Please visit the Microsoft Connect site at http://connect.microsoft.com to gain access to the 4.5 Beta. Sign in with your Microsoft Windows Live ID and then click on "Available Connections" in the left pane. You will see "Application Virtualization 4.5 Public Beta" in the list. Click "Apply" to arrive at the Microsoft Application Virtualization welcome page. At this point, click on the "Downloads" link in the left pane and you will see the Public Beta download.

Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5
(formerly SoftGrid Application Virtualization)

Microsoft Application Virtualization transforms applications into virtualized, network-available services resulting in dynamic delivery of software that is never installed, minimizes conflicts and reduces costly application compatibility testing. Users and their application environments are no longer machine-specific, and the machines themselves are no longer user-specific, enabling IT to be flexible and responsive to business needs, and significantly reducing the cost of PC management, including application and operating system (OS) migrations.

more at source… The World Simplified is a Virtual World : Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 is Open for Public Beta

written by dcaddick

I’m afraid I haven’t had time to actually download the docs and read them through as there are other things I need to get done before heading over to Vegas for Citrix’s Application Delivery Expo next week.

But it would appear that the Guide for Softgrid has come at a very opportune time as I’ve been contacted a couple of times now in the last few weeks by recruiters looking for people here in Australia with experience in Softgrid, in fact a few weeks ago I was contacted by a recruiting firm in Hong Kong who was looking further after they had received little response locally

Beta Solution Accelerators for Virtualization

The Infrastructure Planning and Design series is the next version of Windows Server System Reference Architecture. The guides in this series help clarify and streamline design processes for Microsoft infrastructure technologies; each guide addresses a unique infrastructure technology or scenario. All guides share a common structure including:

· Definition of the technical decision flow through the planning process.

· Listing of decisions to be made and the commonly available options and considerations.

· Relating the decisions and options to the business in terms of cost, complexity, and other characteristics.

· Framing decisions in terms of additional questions to the business to ensure a comprehensive alignment with the appropriate business landscape.

These guides complement product documentation by exposing and focusing on infrastructure design options.

  Guides Available in This Release

SoftGrid Application Virtualization Guide

Microsoft SoftGrid® Application Virtualization is the only virtualization solution on the market to deliver applications that are never installed, yet securely follow users anywhere, on demand. It dramatically improves IT efficiencies, enables much greater business agility, and provides a superior end-user desktop experience. The Infrastructure Planning and Design Series: SoftGrid Application Virtualization assists designers in the infrastructure planning process for SoftGrid by providing a clear and concise workflow of the decisions and tasks required for each method. This guide enables you to plan the infrastructure required for meeting your application virtualization service goals.

Windows Server Virtualization Guide

A virtualized computing environment can improve the efficiency of your computing resources by utilizing more of your hardware resources. Windows Server virtualization enables you to create a virtualized server computing environment using a technology that is part of Windows Server 2008. The Infrastructure Planning and Design Series: Windows Server Virtualization guide discusses Microsoft virtualization options using Windows Server virtualization in Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1. The guide explains design considerations at critical decision points and helps with plans for an optimized server virtualization architecture to meet organizational goals for performance and consolidation.

  Where to Find the Beta Program

The Infrastructure Planning and Design Series beta releases for SoftGrid Application Virtualization and Windows Server Virtualization are available as open beta downloads.

To join the Infrastructure Planning and Design beta, follow these steps:
1) Visit the Microsoft Connect Web site (http://connect.microsoft.com).
2) Click Invitations on the Connect menu.
3) Sign in using a valid Windows Live ID to continue to the Invitations page.
4) Enter your Invitation ID in the box. Your invitation ID is: IPDM-QX6H-7TTV
5) Click Go.

If you have not previously registered with Microsoft Connect, you might be required to register before continuing with the invitation process.

If the link in step 1 does not work for you, copy the full link and paste it into the Web browser address bar.

The World Simplified is a Virtual World : Beta Solution Accelerators for Virtualization

written by dcaddick

Well it’s not much of a surprise that we’re not likely to see a replacement for Windows XPe any time soon? Well apart from an update based on SP3, but clearly it’s going to be some time before we see Vista based version of embedded? But I must confess that while reading through some of the details I was starting to get concerned that we are almost mimicking the bloatware that is afflicting the regular PC’s, Laptop’s and Servers?

Microsoft plots embedded OS futures

Oct. 09, 2007
In his keynote at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) last month, Kevin Dallas, GM of Microsoft’s Windows Embedded unit, tipped some of his group’s future product plans. Included are new versions of Windows CE 6.0 and Windows XP Embedded, plus the arrival of "Windows Vista Embedded."

Before detailing these, Dallas began his talk by providing "examples of where we could improve as an industry." Devices need to be service-aware, he said, citing telephony and navigation as examples.
It should be possible to use a mobile device to receive a phone call at home via VoIP (voice over IP), have it automatically switch to a WAN (and hands-free operation) when moved to a car, then seamlessly switch over to a corporate WLAN at the office, said Dallas. Similarly, he added, navigation devices ought to move information from a PC, to a mobile device, to an in-car system automatically.
Dallas noted four key trends that Microsoft is trying to develop its embedded technologies around, according to Dallas. These are:

• The "Software Plus Service" concept. "We can no longer build software that just sits on a device," he said. "Instead, we have to build software plus a service."
• Next, is a move away from just ramping up clock speed, and toward having multiple heterogeneous cores on a single chip — an applications processor, a graphics processor, and a radio processor.
• Then there’s the trend toward loosely-coupled services. Today, a device such as the Zune portable music player (PMP) is tied to a single music store, while a set-top box might be tightly coupled to a specific video-on-demand service. "In the future, these devices will be able to discover and connect to other services," Dallas said.
• "Finally, of course, there’s service-oriented development," Dallas continued. A service that a device is connecting to "may be on the same device in another core, it could be on the circuit board, it could be on the premises where the device sits, or it could be connecting out … to a web service that’s, frankly, on the other side of the world."

Visual Programming Language (VPL)
Dallas continued his keynote by revealing a new tool called the Visual Programming Language (VPL), with demos by Windows Embedded software architect Mike Hall. "Many developers think of building embedded operating systems in terms of technology stacks … What we’re suggesting is that you start to think at a much higher level," he said.
VPL will allow developers to use a graphical user interface to link services together, explained Hall. It will then be possible to determine at build time whether these services are going to run on a single device or on distributed devices, he said.
Hall added that, "As you start to link the inputs and outputs of services together, you are dynamically prompted for the inputs and the outputs that you want to match … The tools will be smart about determining the matchup between the output of one service and the input of another."

Windows Embedded Roadmap

Windows CE 6.0 Release 2 — Nov. 15, 2007, with Web Services on Devices (WSD), enhanced VoIP, and AJAX support

Windows XP Embedded — sometime in 2008, based on Windows XP Service Pack 3, including .NET Framework 3.0, an updated Media Player, and an RDP (remote desktop protocol) 6 client

Windows Vista Embedded — in 2009 or 2010, a componentized version of Windows Vista

New versions of Windows Embedded
Dallas then detailed future releases of Microsoft’s embedded operating systems. First among these will be Windows CE 6.0 Release 2, scheduled for release on Nov. 15, he said.
According to Dallas, this release will add AJAX (asynchronous Javascript and XML) and "heavy data entry" support in the browser. It also will include enhanced VoIP functionality, such as three-way audio and video conferencing.
The most key feature, according to Dallas, is Web Services on Devices (WSD). This is already included in Windows Vista as a native stack; it’s said the addition of it to Windows CE 6.0 Release 2 will allow communication between the two.
A manage code runtime environment, such as .NET Compact Framework, is no longer required, according to Hall, who also provided a "bubble" demo of graphics on a Vista machine being controlled by a Windows CE device. Instead, Hall said, WSD applications can be written in C or C++.
The second OS update, scheduled for "2008" according to Dallas, will be an enhancement to Windows XP Embedded based on the forthcoming Windows XP Service Pack 3. It will include .NET Framework 3.0, an updated Media Player, and version 6 of the Remote Desktop Client (RDP), he said.
Finally, "Windows Vista Embedded," a componentized version of Windows Vista, akin to Windows XP Embedded, will appear in "2009 or 2010."
Dallas concluded by saying, "You’ll see this common theme of new releases every two years. In between, you’ll see updates in components to drive differentiation, and updates in tools."
"We’re going to continue our ongoing investment [in embedded]," he promised. "We realize what our role is going to be around platform tools and services that enable these smart, connected service-oriented devices. So we’re going to continue to drive leadership in that area."
Further reading
For more details of the keynote, you can download a complete transcript of Kevin Dallas’s ESC Boston 2007 speech (PDF format). For Mike Hall’s account of his demos during Dallas’s keynote, go here.

Microsoft plots embedded OS futures

written by dcaddick

Brian Madden and Gabe Knuth have been looking deep at a possible VDI Solution for a University and they have shared their experiences, I must say it’s an Excellent Post - nothing like igniting the fires just before iForum?

On Brian and Gabe’s behalf I take exception to those who have commented on this post and are giving them a hard time on their *recommendations* to the University - especially those who feel free to shoot them down without offering any other alternative AND simply hiding behind the "Guest" ID

It is great to see someone come out and be completely open about this process and bring it to the public domain where we can all have our 2cents worth - and for this they deserve and have my thanks, as we’re all trying to keep up with all the multitude of different options and potential solutions to help customers get the most out what they’ve got.

This is seriously only a small section of this, if you have any interest in VDI Solutions you should take the time to read through the full Post and all the comments

VDI for hundreds of apps and thousands of users? A case study where we recommended this instead of a Terminal Server-based solution

Posted by Brian Madden on September 26, 2007.

A very strange thing happened yesterday. Gabe and I were working with a customer—a university—and we ended up recommending a VDI solution instead of a Terminal Server-based solution. Afterwards I was feeling, “Wow! I can’t believe I just did that!” But I really feel it makes sense. And in fact I think it might continue to make sense more and more, and now I’m wondering if VDI can start to come out of the niche and into the mainstream?

Let’s start at the very beginning. Gabe and I worked with this university six months ago. They were not using any server-based computing or streaming or anything like that. It was a brand new environment. They had four scenarios (or “use cases”) they wanted to enable:

1. There are 1200 lab workstations throughout campus. Users need to be able to walk up to any one of them and access any of 200 applications. The users also need access to their own data and profiles.
2. They want to publish a remote desktop via server-based computing to people so that they can access the “lab workstation” from their dorm rooms or off campus.
3. They want to publish individual applications (as opposed to a full desktop like in Scenario 2) to users on their own computers.
4. Longer term, they want people to be able to run these applications locally on non-university-controlled workstations (i.e. student laptops), and they want this to work offline.

The initial plan

For Gabe and me, these four scenarios were perfect for a combination of traditional Terminal Server-based application delivery and application streaming.

We were thinking they could use something like SoftGrid to isolate and stream all (or most) of their applications. Then they could add some Terminal Server and a third-party application publishing tool to deliver individual applications. Our initial suggestions for each scenario above were:

1. Use SoftGrid to stream the applications so they run locally on each lab workstation. Install the few non-SoftGrid-compatible applications natively on the workstations.
2. Use Terminal Server, along with Citrix Presentation Server or one of the cheaper alternatives, to publish server-based computing desktops. A combination of SoftGrid and local installs would be used to get the applications onto these Terminal Servers, much like the lab workstations.
3. The same Terminal Servers, running Citrix or whatever, can be used to deliver seamlessly published server-based applications to desktops and laptops.
4. For the applications that can be sequenced with SoftGrid, they could also be streamed to Windows clients for local offline execution.

That was our recommendation and plan six months ago. Let’s look at how that worked out.

more at source…

written by dcaddick

Some very provocative comments from Randall Kennedy regarding Microsoft’s possible intentions?

Microsoft’s Virtualization Endgame

…….

With SoftGrid, Microsoft has the technology portfolio to enable its SaaS endgame strategy. The first salvo was fired at the VMworld conference when Microsoft announced it was decoupling the SoftGrid Virtual Application runtime client from the back-end streaming server (see my review of SoftGrid 4.2 for more on this development). By doing so, Microsoft is positioning the SoftGrid environment as a distribution mechanism on par with its Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format. Soon you’ll be able to "test drive" Office, et al, via this new, highly portable medium.
But test drives and demos are only the tip of the iceberg. Once Microsoft has successfully driven the SoftGrid format into the mainstream expect the company to slowly begin phasing out traditional delivery modes. That means no more Office CDs/DVDs with a thousand installed components – an MSI-wrapped SoftGrid OSD file is the future distribution model for virtually all of Microsoft’s non-server applications. It’s the perfect segue towards the "holy grail" of software development: Uninterrupted, subscriptions-based usage, i.e. utility computing.

Don’t expect the move to a hosted, subscriptions-based model to signal the end of Microsoft’s annoying anti-piracy technologies; the likes of the universally loathed Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) will live on. As the folks over at Thinstall are happy to point out, SoftGrid is far from a secure distribution platform. In fact, once an application has been cached locally it’s almost trivially easy to isolate the bits and extract a working copy. For Microsoft to protect its intellectual property, it will need to employ some sort of validation logic beyond a simple subscriber login. However, the implementation will likely be more granular than the current WGA model, possibly woven into multiple components within the virtual image. Suffice to say that Microsoft won’t be releasing a hosted offering until it has worked out how to effectively secure it against piracy.

……

written by dcaddick