Microsoft App-V for Servers

Microsoft is making headway with its application virtualization vision. Coming up is a shift in perspective for the Redmond company, as the app virtualization concept evolves beyond client machines to servers. Microsoft won't say when exactly it plans to release the equivalent of App-V for servers, but it has confirmed that it is dogfooding (using internally) the solution. In fact, in the video embedded at the bottom you will be able to see a demonstration of System Center Virtual Machine Manager, courtesy of Bill Morein, a lead program manager on the Visio Team. As you will see, applications can be stored in the System Center Virtual Machine Manager libraries just as virtual hard disks.

“In the video, Morein clicks on a running VM, and selects ‘Deploy Application’ and chooses the right app from the library. In this example, he deploys an Enterprise Search application, so we’re not talking Office, or Adobe Reader here,” explained Matt McSpirit, Microsoft UK partner technology specialist. “Bill shows that the app is now running in the VM, and in all honesty, it’s pretty seamless and very cool. There’s more stuff in the video, and it’s definitely worth watching. It won’t be here for a good while, but it’ll cause big ripples in the traditional way you deploy server applications in your infrastructure of the future.”

What will App-v for servers/datacenters be able to do? Well, essentially it will give administrators the same level of flexibility as the client version. Server Application Virtualization is designed to enable the repackaging of applications as xcopyable items. In this manner applications can simply be moved around, via streamlined deployment process. Just watch the video and see how simple it is.

“Application Virtualisation (App-V) has been around a fair while now. It started as SoftGrid, and was owned by Softricity, which was then acquired by Microsoft, and became App-V, with the current release being 4.5. Version 4.6, which brings in things like x64 support, is currently in the Alpha stage. The thing I love about App-V, is the power is gives the IT Admin to deploy applications, without going through a huge regression testing period, as each application exists within it’s own little sandbox, isolated from other applications that would normally conflict,” McSpirit added.