Softricity Deepens App Virtualization With Microsoft's Management System

Application streaming differs from traditional PC "fat" clients and server-based thin-client models in that it virtualizes applications and gives end users dedicated access to a fully functional, centrally managed desktop. In this mode, applications are hosted on a server and delivered to either thick or thin clients. It enables users to provision applications, centrally update and manage them and give end users access to server-based resources.

SoftGrid 4.0 offers multiple application delivery options, including pushed delivery via SMS packages or a pull/on-demand model enabled by by Softricity's streaming delivery model.

SoftGrid 4.0 for Microsoft SMS and a more limited version known as SoftGrid for SMS Virtual Extensions Edition, which provides virtualization but not streaming, became available from Softricity and its partners this week.

"We have a product that allows you to manage and deploy virtual applications within SMS 2003," said David Greschler, marketing director at Softricity. "With [SoftGrid] 4.0, we have a virtual extensions version that allows you to manage the apps without any SoftGrid infrastructure, just using SMS's infrastructure.

According to Forrester, Softricity's combination of virtualization and streaming in SoftGrid delivers what customers want from desktop virtualization solutions: easier desktop management and improved security, without sacrificing any of the end-user desktop benefits.

Softricity partners said SoftGrid's integration with SMS gives partners a turnkey application virtualization solution.

"The convenience of having a common platform to handle the capabilities of SMS and virtual application distribution and streaming is a major benefit to administrators and to their clients," said Mike Miller, a vice president at Consultrix Technologies, a Softricity reseller in Ridgeland, Miss. "Even the task of [application] compatibility testing will be shortened and simplified. Application conflicts will be reduced. Clients will be able to access software on demand, without having to wait for the software to be installed on their device."

Application virtualization also eases software updating, since only code changes are streamed to the desktop, according to Softricity. Moreover, the 4.0 platform gives users more granular control, including the ability to schedule select virtual machine workloads to expire at defined time and date.

Still, the technology has some downsides, Forrester noted. Partners must prepare for complex repackaging of applications to enable them for the virtualized environment, although that’s performed just once and can be reused many times, the research firm said.

In addition, certain applications won’t work in virtualized environments, and virtualization products often support a limited number of operating systems, leaving legacy applications out of the loop, Forrester said.

Open source consultant Stephen Walli, a vice president at Cambridge, Mass.-based Optaros, said he will reserve judgment on whether virtualized application technologies from Softricity with SMS are easier to manage than traditional components.

"It's unclear to me that these packages will manage more easily when they're delivered as single entities than when shipped and managed in their component parts," Walli said. "I understand the lure of the promise … [but] when my system administrator friends tell me the fundamental ways it's making their worlds easier and better in a quantifiable way, then I'll buy into the idea."