I’d like to introduce a capability from our partner CloudVolumes, which allows ThinApp packages to be delivered as VMDKs. This is an exciting form factor because of the added performance and flexibility that any customer with ThinApp packages and a vSphere datastore can start utilizing today. There are a number of benefits with this approach which complement the isolation and cross-platform compatibility that application virtualization provides. Let’s highlight a few of them below:
- Customers can now present ThinApp packages as dynamically attached volumes on storage instead of moving bits around the data center via the network (so ’90s . . .). This removes the network variable, which is often the limiting factor for scalability and performance for deploying ThinApp packages in streaming mode.
- Entitlement to AD users and groups and ThinApp registration become immediate turnkey processes, driven through a centralized GUI, without any need for login scripts or for users to log in and log out for changes to take effect.
- ThinApp packages retain their read-only property and can be mounted either in a shared fashion to multiple virtual machines or attached to virtual machines individually (on local storage as well). The ThinApp sandbox can also be made portable by utilizing writable CloudVolumes to fully enable the needs of the nonpersistent desktop.
- This is not a VDI-only solution! ThinApp is used heavily on the RDSH platform for very dense application delivery environments, and the combination of CloudVolumes and ThinApp delivers a truly remarkable solution without trade-offs. Having administered my fair share of RDSH boxes, I really appreciate this angle!
This is an elegant solution that empowers IT to provide scalable growth, significant storage savings, and simpler application management, while end users benefit from the accelerated performance. So we worked with the CloudVolumes team to put together a framework for understanding the benefits and some test data that really shows the solution off. Please take a read HERE!
Not a reader? I understand :-). Check out the video at either YouTube or Vimeo, or scope out the diagram below for a conceptual view.
