| Desktop Virtualisation: Making PCs Manageable (Part 2) |
| Monday, 18 September 2006 by Michel Roth | |||
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"Although the technologies from Ardence, Propero, Stream Theory and Wyse centralize applications and data, they also let users store data locally as well (a PC's C drive is remapped to become its D drive when their software runs). Moreover, because Altiris' and Microsoft's application streaming tools let you set up applications in their own virtual layer or session, IT can avoid the regression testing across the whole application set whenever a program is modified or added, says Russell Investments' Nelson." "With the solutions offered by Altiris, AppStream, and Microsoft, the client PC can have its own operating system and applications installed, while the server pushes centrally provisioned applications into local desktop caches. In this fashion, IT can distribute resources selectively. For example, Russell's Nelson installs Windows along with applications that act as extensions to the operating system (such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, Apple QuickTime, and Java) on local PCs -- plus Microsoft Office and a few other frequently used applications -- on local PCs. Then he uses SoftGrid to provision other applications as streams." "Yet another variation is to combine application streaming with terminal services. At Alamance Regional Medical Center in Burlington, N.C., senior network administrator Andy Gerringer uses both Citrix and SoftGrid to provision desktops. Citrix is used in the usual manner to deliver server-based applications as individual sessions. But Alamance also uses Citrix to provide access to a SoftGrid desktop environment for terminal users. Essentially, the Citrix session runs the SoftGrid virtual machine. "SoftGrid and Citrix complement each other very well," Gerringer says." "Application streaming comes with a significant side benefit: eliminating application conflicts. The application streaming tools from AppStream, Altiris, and Microsoft separate application-specific support files such as DLLs and libraries from the underlying operating system. Altiris separates just the support files, keeping the applications with the operating system, whereas AppStream and Microsoft keep each app and its support files together in one virtual layer or package." Read the entire article here.
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