Softricity Deepens App Virtualization With Microsoft's Management System

One Boston-based ISV is giving infrastructure partners a new way to virtualize and stream Windows applications to end users from within Microsoft's Systems Management Server.

At Microsoft's Management Summit 2006, Softricity rolled out Softricity Desktop 4.0 and SoftGrid 4.0. Version 4.0 offers tight integration with Microsoft Systems Management Server, rapid virtualization via its new Sequencer technology, more scalable centralized management and certification for VMware and Microsoft virtual machines.

Softricity's first SoftGrid for Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 add-on was released in February. It allows solution providers to rapidly virtualize applications and deploy them from within SMS without having to deploy VMware or Microsoft Virtual Server. Solution providers said the product provides an application virtualization solution that delivers improved Windows desktop management and security out of the box.

"The use of virtualized applications is something that fits nicely into Microsoft's on-demand and virtualization strategies," said Paul Freedman, president of Coast Solutions Group, Irvine, Calif.

SoftGrid 4.0 turns locally installed Windows applications into virtual network services that can be centrally managed and deployed on demand without any changes to the desktop, according to Softricity. SoftGrid 4.0's integration with the SMS Management Console allows for the management of virtual machines within SMS, and the upgraded platform offers native SMS inventory and metering integration so that virtual machines can be tracked, reported and stored in asset management systems.

Softricity pioneered the application streaming software category in 2001. The company’s technology, also called application sandboxing, is a hybrid of virtualization and application streaming technology that repackages applications and breaks them down into components that can be cached in a “sandbox” and streamed to end users.

The technology offers a compelling alternative to operating-system virtualization solutions such as VMware or Virtual Server because it enables applications to run in protected, isolated mode without the need to install or make changes to the host operating system.

Softricity's application streaming technology is categorized as a virtual desktop, one of three desktop models identified in a report by Forrester Research in January.

File system virtualization techniques employed by Citrix Systems and Altiris offer similar ways of isolating applications but are differerent from SoftGrid’s technology in that they virtualize only the file system, rather than the application, Forrester said.