You may be familiar with server virtualization because it has consumed (and consolidated) the server infrastructure of the world; still, there are many other forms of virtualization — desktop, network, storage, IO, and application.
With application virtualization, your applications are separated from your desktop operating system and encapsulated in their own containers.
Why would you want to do that? Here are 3 reasons:
- No More Application Installs — How long does it take to install Office 2007? A long time, right? How much time could be saved if you never had to install it again? With ThinApp, Office will just “run”.
- Upgrade Apps Once — How long does it take to rollout applications to all of your end user PCs? A long time, right? Again, how much time would be saved if you never had to upgrade apps on multiple desktops ever agan? With ThinApp, you create a new virtualized version of the applicaton, replace the old application and end users just start using the new version of the app.
- No More Application Incompatibilities — Back to that application upgrade, with ThinApp end users can run two versions of an app at the same time – such as Office 2003 and 2007. This way, they can train on the new version before you “flip the switch” over to the new apps.
You can’t do these types of things with applications that are installed. By taking advantage of ThinApp’s features, you will save lots of time when it comes to administration and your company will save money.
In this video sample I provide a super-quick demonstration of how easy it can be to virtualize an application using ThinApp. In this case, I demonstrate how to virtualize Firefox in under 5 minutes.
While ThinApp can be purchased by itself, it is also part of VMware View — VMware’s deskop virtulization solution.
Both ThinApp and View can be downloaded and evaluated for free over 60 days at their respective websites.
Virtualizing applications can be very simple or very cumbersome — it all depends on your experience and the application itself. In my new vSphere Pro Vol 1 Video Training Course, I cover ThinApp from installation to in-depth examples of virtualizing applications like Office 2007.
Thinapping Firefox and small utilities is a piece of cake. Have you tried to thinapp Microsoft Office? It is a complicated mess.
Hi Steven,
Thanks for your comments!
I do agree that virtualizing an app like Office is time consuming and can be challenging. In fact, in my 50 minute video on virtualizing apps in my new vSphere Pro Vol 1 course, that is exactly what I do – virtualize Office.
Still, if you are going to roll out Office to a large enterprise, I believe that virtualizing it can be so worth the time and effort.
Thanks again for your commets!
-David
How about virtualizing Adobe Acrobat Reader?
I agree with David. After all nothign comes easy until you get your hands dirt on that. That is what techies like us have to learn and earn
Hi John,
Thanks for your comments! Virtualizing Acrobat is the exact same process and not too complex.
Here is a link to the VMware community thread where they discuss it:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/199419
And here is an article where someone shows how they used ThinApp to virtualize Acrobat (free registration is required to view it):
http://searchvmware.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid179_gci1337897_mem1,00.html
Hope that helps!
-David
Hi,
Im in Toronto, and i would like to know where i can get some training on VM Ware in the next few days..
please email me.. i would really appreciate it.
Thank you
Is it possible to virtualize an app with the app’s updates included to run as soon as it launches itself.
Hi Joe
Great question!
Yes, there are a few different ways to update ThinApp packages but, likely, you are wanting what they call “AppSync”.
Please see this VMware post and I think it will answer your question in much more detail-
http://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/2010/05/thinapp-updating.html
Thanks for reading!
-David