New wave of App Streaming Tools
With Microsoft's acquisition of Softricity in 2006 (now called MS Softgrid), VMware's recent purchase of Thinstall, Symantec acquiring of AppStream and integrating it into the Altiris SVS platform and the new Endeavors Technologies release of Application Jukebox, the choice of application virtualization technologies continues to expand. I'll mention the open source Portable Apps option as well although it's still lacking some of the advanced functionality of the aforementioned programs.
Ok, so what is "application virtualization"? Simply, it's a way to run a fully functional application without having to install DLLs, registry entries, etc. on your local workstation operating system. The application RUNS on the local machine, but it is isolated from your core OS. It's akin to having an application run from a single .EXE file instead of the plethora of files and directories created by a typical install.
How is this useful you ask? Well, how about being able to give users access to the latest version of your application without having to worry what OS they are running, whether they have .NET 2.0 framework installed (for you .NET developers) and the like. You can distribute the latest binary package to a central server and when the user requests to run the application they automatically get the latest version downloaded to their desktop (again, no install process).
Each of the vendors have somewhat differing approaches to the technology of application virtualization, but the upside benefits are the same: centralized version control, homogenization of application execution, host OS independence and quick, secure revocation of access to critical apps.
Portable Apps even pushes the option of running the full application from a USB flash drive, so you can carry your applications with you and run them from any PC.
