Enterprises are off and running with Windows 7, App-V, XenApp and optimized desktop projects. The challenge comes in determining what applications to migrate, managing applications, application testing and application compatibility. Next week’s Microsoft World Partner Conference has an amazing track educating Microsoft partners on how to best help enterprises accelerate their move to Windows 7, as well as Internet Explorer 8, App-V and all of the related technologies.

What if Microsoft partners were given the opportunity to partner with App-DNA and, for no cost, access the award winning AppTitude™ application testing and application remediation platform to deliver to Proof of Concepts (POC)? What if it only took three days to assess application remediation issues?

App-DNA has a fantastic program that already exists today, called Launchpad and will provide a crystal clear view of an enterprise’s application estate.  This in turn will help systems integrators and service providers deliver the business case to move more quickly to the optimized desktop.  Partners will find more successful projects by gaining a truer understanding of what the enterprise application estate looks like, and better assessing the level of effort needed to properly give an accurate bid for the project. Customers and partners are more satisfied from a clear view of the project, an accurate price quote and a realistic timeline based on facts rather than “gut feel.”

App-DNA Launchpad is a quick-start application compatibility discovery program that brings together four high-value components:

EstateView™ - provides an instant portfolio readiness report on up to 1000 apps

EffortCalculator™ - details project scope and scale by using real metrics to calculate costs, duration and resource needs

CoreSample™ - assessment reports on 50 apps with full reports on 10 selected MSI apps with a deep ‘drill down’ on over 68,000 data points per app in 11 areas

What it means for Microsoft partner’s customers:

See exactly how ready a customer’s app estate is to migrate

Calculate what the migration proposal will cost and how long it will take

Guide resourcing decisions

Build an informed migration strategy – meet more deadlines

Interested in learning more about App-DNA Launchpad for Microsoft partners?  Drop us a line at info@app-dna.com to set up a time to talk at WPC next week or after the conference.

"What would you say if I were to tell you that migrating to a virtual desktop was no different than if you were going to migrate to Windows 7?” What a great question! Daniel Feller from Citrix explains in more detail in his blog post & his session this week at #BriForum  “Windows 7 and the Virtual Desktop Revolution.”

App-DNA™ also sees the similarities in virtual projects and Windows 7 migrations. Both have hurdles to clear, especially around application compatibility. The AppTitude™ application testing and application remediation software includes an Overview Summary Report – a dashboard that helps you clearly see where apps will be successful – if they won’t run well on Windows 7, will they run well on XenApp or App-V as an alternative?

Whenever we’re out with enterprise IT groups, talking with Windows 7 project managers or application virtualization user groups, we try to show them the AppTitude dashboard for determining the best platform and delivery model for each application. Usually eyes open wider, everyone steps in for a closer look, and the questions start rolling. It was one of my favorite AppTitude views to show last week at Microsoft #TechEd – so many project leaders are just now learning there is an automated approach to application compatibility – and determining what apps will be successful on what platforms. Take a look, let us know how you’d find this useful for the common bonds in your Windows 7 and application virtualization projects, either in the comments or via info@app-dna.com   

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.

Great article by Ruben Spruijt on www.brianmadden.com with a step-by-step guide to moving today's apps into tomorrow's world, featuring AppTitude and the role the product plays.

See it here - http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/rubenspruijt/archive/2010/02/15/think-today-change-tomorrow-your-step-by-step-to-getting-to-the-desktop-of-tomorrow.aspx

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.