By Randy Littleson
I often get asked what drives companies to standardize their application packaging and application readiness processes. I thought the best way to answer this is to give you some real-life examples of what makes this commitment a no-brainer:
One of the largest banks in France needed to prepare their applications for a Windows 7 migration and wanted to implement application virtualization to save time and effort. Challenged with 300 specific applications to prepare for Windows 7 and consider for Microsoft App-V application virtualization, they needed to accelerate and automate the complex process of packaging and converting applications to App-V and to ensure reliable Windows 7 software deployments.
The IT service department for a German Pharmaceutical Retailer with branches across Germany had 30 application packagers needing to deploy enterprise software onto over 1300 desktops and ensure that all users would have access to the same features and functionality. Additionally, the packages were expected to be deployed with no errors. They looked to standardize their application preparation process so that they could package and repackage software quickly and reliably for clients and increase software deployment success rate to >99%.
A national law firm with a small IT department responsible for preparing and managing over 200 applications across 800 desktops was in the process of rolling out a new operating system, moving to VMware's virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), migrating to Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) on the backend, and deploying a new version of Microsoft Office. The team's resources were tapped—they had to repackage everything, consider what and how to virtualize applications, and optimize their SCCM investment—and their current application preparation process was completely ad hoc. They required a solution to help the IT team through the current migration projects and additionally, they needed a solution that would be a best practice standard for routine software deployments.
These are three very common examples. A typical company is faced with 30% of their applications changing annually. Each of these applications must be put through a standardized Application Readiness process to ensure consistently reliable software deployments. On top of that, most companies are also dealing with migrations, say to Windows 7, or desktop transformation initiatives that utilize application virtualization and/or desktop virtualization—all impacting applications.
For these scenarios and many more like them, companies turn to a standardized process and solution for application compatibility, packaging and preparation such as AdminStudio to increase productivity, reduce IT costs and resource requirements, integrate with SCCM, and quickly convert applications to a virtual format—and ensure reliable application deployments across the enterprise.
