Key to Migrating to Windows 7 and Beyond: Virtualize the Apps

I have been doing Application Virtualization for a long time – a dozen years now. For a long time AppVirt was more of a niche than it is today. Originally it was used with Citrix and Terminal Servers, but even when desktop and laptop support was added it was used by a relatively small number of leading edge companies. That changed somewhat when Microsoft acquired the technology (renaming it App-V), which signaled to many enterprises that they could depend on the technology well into the future.

But it has been the migration to Windows 7 that has finally allowed this technology to break out from being niche and into the mainstream of enterprises worldwide. The numbers and ranges of companies adopting App-V are stagering. A major driving force appears to be companies that are facing the prospect of a migration project for Windows 7; they tend to adopt App-V as a key ingredient of the project for what I find to be some common reasons:

  1. The average effort required by premium (hard to get / hard to keep / expensive) packagers to prepare an application for deployment is significantly less with App-V versus MSI repackaging.
  2. Isolation of applications eliminates application conflicts.
  3. Isolation allows “standard rights” users to run legacy apps (which would normally need admin or power privileges to run).
  4. Virtualizing applications makes the OS more stateless and much more stable.
  5. They will have some VDI, and “non-persistent” VDI needs App-V.

Our master’s level App-V training classes have been overfilling in the last two years with companies that are in their migration projects. If you are still working on your Migration project you have a lot of company out there. If you are still planning (or thinking of planning), you might be a bit behind the curve.

Companies come to us at TMurgent, not because they want every application delivered via App-V, but because they want to get as many as they can, and quickly. Given a week of time, we educate your people completely in App-V from the ground up. We offer public classes roughly 5 times a year, and on-site private “quick-start” engagements as well. We also provide on or off site consulting to tackle difficult applications.

It isn’t too late. And now that Windows 8 is around the corner, guess what? Those virtualized Windows 7 apps will work great on Windows 8 desktops too!

By Tim Mangan

Tim is a Microsoft MVP, and a Citrix CTP Fellow. He is an expert in App-V and MSIX.