By Debra Perrin Coltoff, Technical Writer, End-User-Computing Technical Marketing, VMware
You already have a Citrix XenApp implementation, and it is working for you. Why not maximize the return on that investment by using XenApp with VMware ThinApp? Paired, the two solutions solve many of the problems of a XenApp implementation on its own.
Wait a second. Did you catch that? There is a lot of information out there about using either Citrix or VMware solutions. But did you know that using your current XenApp implementation with ThinApp solves many of your existing problems? Let us look at ThinApp and XenApp together and how, in partnership, they offer a powerful advantage over XenApp alone.
ThinApp and XenApp—Two Parts of the Same Solution
XenApp is an application presentation solution. Users share centrally located applications and the operating systems they run on, and then use the remotely displayed applications on endpoint devices. But Citrix isolates applications from each other via XenApp silos. For example, separate XenApp farms and servers have to be created to support both Office 2010 and Office 2013. This strategy requires additional hardware for proper load balancing and redundancy.
With ThinApp added to your XenApp environment, you are able to run both Office 2010 and 2013 on the same XenApp servers, reducing the amount of XenApp infrastructure required.
So How Does ThinApp Work?
ThinApp virtualizes Windows applications. But with ThinApp virtualization, you can have complete isolation of a ThinApp packaged application from other applications and from the host operating system. Changes that the application makes to the file system and registry are contained within a user-owned sandbox, and neither the host operating system nor any other application can detect the ThinApp packaged application. With Citrix XenApp, applications that might conflict with each other must be isolated with hardware, which means the conflicting applications need to be located on different XenApp server silos. But using software such as VMware ThinApp to package applications allows applications that would otherwise conflict with each other to be executed side by side on the same XenApp application server.
What Else Can ThinApp Do for My Implementation?
Installations and updates of ThinApp packaged applications are easy, too. Placing one copy of a ThinApp packaged application on a file share is much simpler than installing XenApp applications on multiple servers in multiple server farms. With ThinApp you never have to take a server offline to update an application. In the event that a server does need to be taken offline for repairs or OS updates, application loads are easily configured to use any other XenApp servers in the farm.
ThinApp even allows you to use legacy Web applications with newer versions of Windows and Internet Explorer that are required when you upgrade XenApp. With IE virtualization, legacy applications can still be used on a newer operating system.
How Do I Integrate ThinApp with XenApp?
With ThinApp virtualized applications on a file share and shortcuts to those applications on the XenApp application server, the ThinApp packages stream over the LAN to the XenApp server. From there, ThinApp packaged applications can be configured and presented as XenApp published applications to end users. Users with Citrix Receiver on their endpoints can access Citrix published applications, including ThinApp virtualized applications.
Is It really That Easy to Install ThinApp Packages in My Existing Environment?
Yes, it is easy to place ThinApp virtualized applications in your existing XenApp environment. You simply place the ThinApp package on a XenApp server or on a file share, register the ThinApp package to the XenApp server, and publish it. From there, end users can launch the published application. That is it.
To learn more about using ThinApp to improve your current Citrix XenApp implementation, read the white paper Integrating VMware ThinApp with Citrix XenApp.
To explore ThinApp, download a free trial of ThinApp and use the ThinApp Reviewer’s Guide. Or, for additional information on ThinApp, see the VMware ThinApp product website.
And, to read about ThinApp application delivery options, see the white paper Application-Delivery Options in VMware Horizon 6.0.
