Organizations today are in various stages of rolling out Windows 7, but no matter which stage they're in App-DNA™ technical resources often hear the same kinds of questions. You would expect questions like: Will my applications work when running on Windows 7? If there are application compatibility issues, can it be fixed and how do I implement that fix?

AppTitude solves these problems by providing application owners with detailed compatibility information about an application in just minutes. This core value alone accelerates Windows 7 deployments, reduces costs and eliminates risk by shining a light on the internals of every single application in an enterprise portfolio -- without having to manually test each and every one of the applications. This blog post isn't necessarily about manual testing for Windows 7 versus static analysis, but if you want to learn more about how AppTitude answers those questions, click here.

When working with App-DNA customers implementing the AppTitude application compatibility platform, another question that always bubbles up is *should* I fix an application or is it more cost-effective to replace or retire it? Whenever I get asked this question, the answer is always the same: “It depends.” This is a business decision that involves several parameters:

• What is the value of the application to the organization?
• Is the application expected to have a long remaining lifespan?
• Can the defects in the application even be fixed?
• For commercial applications, does the vendor have a Windows 7 compatible version?
• How much does it cost to upgrade to that compatible version and how does that cost compare to the cost of remediating and testing the existing version of your application?

AppTitude provides application intelligence to drive these business decisions. Generating this application intelligence manually without AppTitude would be a tedious, manual process that would require enterprise IT organizations to essentially incur the costs of trying to remediate a problem application in order to even determine if remediation is a cost effective solution. In basic terms, fix something to determine if you even want to keep it.  The reporting architecture in AppTitude provides intelligence to make these decisions at your fingertips. The most important reports for driving these decisions are AppTitude Action reports. AppTitude action reports give targeted information about which applications have defects, what those defects are, how they can be remediated, and the cost of implementing those remediations.  This information is invaluable in making a decision to remediate, upgrade, redevelop, mitigate or retire an application.

 Below is a very basic flow to highlight the kinds of decisions you have to make and where Application Intelligence is necessary to drive those decisions. The blue shapes are processes, decisions and data points driven entirely by AppTitude Application Intelligence. The  orange shapes represent decisions factoring in business specific data with Application Intelligence.  The green shapes represent processes that are optimized and streamlined.

The success of an application compatibility project is not measured just on moving the organization to Windows 7, but also in doing so in a cost effective and timely way.   Application Intelligence drives these cost decisions earlier in the project lifecycle where they can make a difference. AppTitude generates this Application Intelligence in just minutes per application.

Exciting stuff happening here, App-DNA™ has just launched AppTitude™ v.4.5 and have added some great new features that will improve the ease of install and setup as well as scalability and reporting.

Added Application Compatibility Checks

·         Server 2008 R2 – The all new Server 2008 R2 module now allows organizations to check compatibility on the latest Windows Server build. 

·         App-V related checks – will reflect added App-V 4.6 capability for x64 bit apps.  We've also added some cool stuff to detect app dependencies that will help you to determine if you need to implement DSC (Dynamic Suiting Capability).

·         XenApp Streamed related checks – Will reflect added functionality delivered in XenApp 6.0 for capturing services, as well as minor tweaks to show compatibility with 16 bit DOS apps and handling of 64 bit apps.

Improved Installer and all new  “AppTitude Web Server”

·         Faster and simpler setup experience for new users

·         New "AppTitude Configuration" tool to assist in modifying server and client settings

·         System Check facility to verify successful setup of the web service

·         Now you can opt for an “express” alternative to IIS by choosing to install the AppTitude Web Server (for fast setup of local implementations)

More Scalable Reporting

·         Ability to define the number of applications to view in one page in the Assessment view ( very handy for large app portfolios)

New Remediation Level Action Reporting

·         Shows actions required to remediate each app for better remediation reports

·         This will help to get a better idea of how much work is actually involved in getting an app remediated

·         Gives users a way to add their own remediation actions – increases accuracy

Site & Database Switcher – connect to multiple AppTitude DBs

·         A new function within the AppTitude console under the Administration tab that will allow customers to easily add a new AppTitude database, export this and import to any clients required.

·         Improves ease of scalability

·         Once setup, the AppTitude Administrator can export the settings and send the XML config file to the appropriate users to very quickly get them ready to work on the new account.

Updated Import Screen

·         More scalable importing – no limit to the number of apps that can be queued to import

·         Improved layout of import screen -- ability to filter by column (import & export defined filters)

License Transfer – Between Machines

·         Easier to transfer AppTitude licenses from one machine to another

·         Faster, easier and more flexible management of licenses

·         New report navigation system

Auto Unlocker for Licenses:  to select a representative sample of apps

·         Helps select which apps to unlock in the "Apply Licenses" view

·         The result will be a 'random' selection of Red, Amber and Green applications in a defined ratio across all modules that are licensed

If you are one of our partners, check out the webcast on new features through the partner portal site:

http://portal.app-dna.com/Download.aspx#

As enterprises start planning migrations to the Microsoft Optimized Desktop (Windows 7, App-V, IE8, and Office 2010), one of the most common challenges I hear is "how do I get started"?  And in reality, the answer to this question differs quite a bit between different organizations. 

One of the constants that remains is that the goal of these migration planning sessions is to understand the state of the existing application portfolio and the level of effort that it takes to create deployment ready application packages to roll out in Windows 7 and App-V.  AppTitude™ as a platform can help manage and deliver on that goal.

While AppTitude's application compatibility analysis and intelligent remediation has already provided enterprises with a great snapshot as to the state of their existing portfolio and what the necessary forward actions need to be taken to address outstanding issues, not everyone is aware of AppTitude's ability to create deployment ready packages in a variety of different formats (MSI, App-V, XenApp profiles, etc).

For applications that are not already packaged in the MSI format, the AppTitude Production Manager can spin up virtual machines and essentially capture the construct of an application.  This can be done using application owner input during the installation process or in an unattended mode for those apps that are being deployed silently.  The entire process is managed through "execution profiles", task-based execution sequences driven and customized using simple XML based commands on the back end.  Needless to say, with the level of flexibility associated with these execution profiles, many organizations have been able to take advantage of their existing packaging tools.  Many organizations have already leveraged these execution profiles to integrate with tools such as the Microsoft App-V Sequencer, Citrix XenApp Profiler, Flexera Software AdminStudio, Symantec Wise Package Studio, etc.,  to create deployment ready packages as part of the application planning and application migration process. And for those organizations that are looking to implement ITIL or MOF best practices, the entire capture and package creation process is automatically documented for use in your definitive software library for future releases and application updates.

To learn more about how AppTitude can help automate the application migration process by creating deployment ready packages, come talk with App-DNA™ at MMS Expo booth #437—we’ll be the ones in the (Illini) orange shirts.

Every year a stream of new or updated apps enter your company environment. This application flow is sometime called “Business As Usual” (BAU) or churn, and it can be estimated to be 20-30% of the existing portfolio.

i.e. if you have a 1,000 apps today , something like 200-300 new or modified packages will enter the environment every year.

This churn rate tells us that every package should therefore have a shelf life of 3 to 5 years. Simple. Hmm... that is if you stay on the same OS... when you’ll change you might have to repackage or sequence again all these MSI. So if you move in one year every package you create today for your XP environment will only stay valid for a third or a fifth of its normal shelf life (1 year instead of 3 to 5). So every package effectively cost you 3 to 5 time more money...

300 apps x $1,000 a package if you got a decent deal= $300k. If you keep on packaging for XP alone during the two years of your migration, you have lost $400k-$500k...

But what else could you do? You still have to deploy on XP waiting for that shiny new desktop OS.

Well you should indeed continue to package for XP but just as importantly you should configure the packages for Win 7 as well. I have heard this called many names: “future proofing”, “dual packaging”, etc.

By analysing your BAU apps with AppTitude™ prior to packaging them (remember, we are the only one that can analyse any format and not only MSI) you get all the information you need to make sure they will work on both OS. And that takes the shelf life of your package back to the normal 3-5 years for an extra overhead cost of roughly 10%.

So save yourself the hassle and the cost of doing the same package twice and give us a ring to understand how you can future proof your BAU process.

Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2010 is next week! The App-DNA™ technical team is eagerly anticipating conversations about your application compatibility and application remediation challenges, successes and questions. MMS is always a great venue to learn more about System Center, Windows 7, App-V, MED-V and what’s next from Microsoft. We enjoy catching up with old friends and making new friends – stop by and see App-DNA at Expo Booth #437 or chat with the orange-shirted App-DNA team at these MMS sessions.

Monday, Apr 19

Windows 7 - Gaining More Control Over Windows Installer Packaging Infrastructure – We’ve found organizations that follow MSI best practices have higher application compatibility ratios when testing their application estate for Windows 7.  Darwin Sanoy knows MSI inside and out -- check out his CSI:\>Windows blog

Tuesday, Apr 20

Considerations for deploying and managing applications in the cloud – Managing change is a key priority for IT teams. Well managed environments have faster deployments to new technologies – less time spent fixing problems that may slow down your adoption of cool new technologies like the cloud.  

Beyond Service Manager - Partner Solutions – as a System Center Alliance partner, App-DNA is always interested in what System Center peer partners are developing…

Virtualization - Ask the Panel of Experts – App-DNA helps enterprises with application virtualization compatibility, accelerating App-V implementations. We learn from your comments on the MDOP team blogs and we’re keen to hear the live questions of MMS attendees.

Ask the Panel of Community Experts -  Most panels include 4-5 experts, but this one includes a huge lineup of top contributors to the MyITForum message boards, plus industry leaders, and your really interesting questions.

Wednesday, Apr 21

App-V: Top 10 Most Common Customer Scenarios and End to End Review – If you’re not yet adopting App-V, find out how you can. Angie Anderson & Bill Morein have such in-depth knowledge – bound to be a great session. 

Thursday, Apr 22

Unblocking and Accelerating your Windows 7 Deployment Using MED-V – App-DNA works closely with Windows 7 app compat every day, we’re interested in helping accelerate your Windows 7 deployment.

Configuration Manager v.Next - Ask the Panel of Experts – The best part of MMS is sometimes going back to work on Monday with all of the information that you learned about v.Next- you’re the star at the coffee maker with all your new knowledge. Jeff Wettlaufer is still taking questions for this session - Twitter them to #mmsea01  

Friday, Apr 23

Sequencing Deep Dive: Efficiently Making your Applications Virtual – As App-DNA works with customers implementing App-V, the most popular questions are “what should I virtualize” and “how do I fix it if it won’t virtualize?”  

Also, don’t forget the keynotes, end of day Speaker Q&A sessions, Birds of a Feather, plus the amazing Hands on Labs! In all your scheduling, be sure to book time to stop by the App-DNA Expo Booth #437 to see AppTitude™ in action. Want to set a specific time with App-DNA? Contact info@app-dna.com

What sessions are you most interested in seeing? Share your favorites in the comments.  

Since Microsoft’s acquisition of Softricity in 2006, application virtualization has developed mainstream credibility as a mechanism for delivering applications.  Initially, it was also branded as a solution to application compatibility issues; however, with few exceptions, this has generally not been the case.  Applications, even when virtualized, interact with the operating system.  Therefore, any incompatibilities that exist with the OS will persist after virtualization.  That said, there are many advantages to virtualizing applications in terms of deployment, portability and stability, and a variety of vendors provide solutions in this space.

Given that the migration process to a new OS such as Windows 7 typically involves a touch on all applications, it represents an opportunity to take advantage of a virtualization solution while preparing the applications for the new OS.  Application virtualization requires a number of constraints and the skills to handle applications through the process are relatively scarce, so it’s important to have an understanding of how many applications are suitable for it, and which ones.  Planning for the inclusion of application virtualization is worthwhile, but it should be viewed for what it is: an additional stream of work through the migration process.  Like any incremental effort, the ultimate benefits must be weighed against the investment required to achieve them.