Application Readiness

Windows XP Support End Looms – Automation Eases Windows 7 Migration

By Randy Littleson

Companies of all sizes have one eye on the clock ticking down to the end of Windows XP support.  Numbers vary on the percentage of corporations and desktops that have been migrated to Windows 7 (we are not seeing many migrating to Windows 8), but all numbers point to a large number of companies that have yet to finish.  It’s a pretty safe bet that the overwhelming majority of companies that are not finished are at some point in their project to get there.

No matter where you’re at in the planning or execution stages of your Windows 7 migration, you will clearly benefit from automation of the Application Readiness process.  As the clock ticks down, you may think that an option is to outsource the management of application preparedness to a third party in an effort to get done by the deadline by “throwing bodies at the problem.”  As is typically the case in such situations, you may succeed with this, but you’ve really just put a band aid over the core issue that will come back to bite you later.  What you won’t be achieving by going this route is establishing/improving your overall Application Readiness processes, systems and tools critical to dealing with future changes (and keep in mind that industry data shows that 30% of applications change each year and need to go through this process).   Future changes are likely to include moving to Microsoft System Center 2012 or standardizing on application virtualization delivery models.

Since the big Windows 7 migration projects began over 3 years ago, Application Readiness solutions to manage application migrations have emerged and matured substantially, evolving from tactical tools to integrated solutions that are highly functional for day-to-day packaging tasks but also highly scalable for mass application migration projects.  And, they are field proven to work—saving you time and increasing the success rate of application migration projects.

While focusing on applications is a critical component of your Windows 7 migration you can’t forget about your users.  The massive time and effort of manually scheduling deployment to users can be a large project.  New solutions have emerged in this area as well.  App Stores not only allow you to deliver new apps to users but can also be used by IT and end users to manage and schedule OS Deployments in a way that minimizes mass help desk calls and network traffic, allows IT to have a controlled deployment and gives end users control over when their machines will be updated

You can complete your Windows 7 projects by the XP deadline, but you need to leverage advancements in automation for these critical areas: 

• Assessing application compatibility status
• Remediating issues
• Publishing fixed applications to your deployment solution
• Scheduling deployments with users

Be sure any solution you select has the following critical capabilities:

• Proven and reliable in many successful Windows 7 migrations, application virtualization projects and day-to-day application packaging
• Allows you to implement best practice MSI and application packaging standards at the same time you are assessing and preparing applications for Windows 7 deployment
• Ability to deploy back to System Center with the new user-centric Application Model fully populated
• Fully integrated with an App Store so that once you are ready to update users for Windows 7 – you can easily provide self-service scheduling
• An automation layer that not only reduces the manual tasks – but one that supports the automation techniques and tools that you already know – like PowerShell

Thousands of companies have used proven Application Readiness solutions to successfully migrate to Windows 7 while at the same time establishing a competency in managing application preparedness on an ongoing basis.  You can implement new standards and practices to enable a continuous Application Readiness process so that as you are filling day-to-day application requests you are ensuring your entire application estate is always ready for the next change.

Lessons Learned on the Journey to Successful Desktop Transformation

By Greg LaVigne

As the Client Computing/Desktop Architect of a Fortune 100 financial services company, I spearheaded a 5+ year journey to the next generation desktop and application delivery technologies. Our desktop transformation path included technologies such as Virtualized Desktops (both VDI based and RDS), Application Virtualization, User Profile Virtualization, Thin Clients, Windows 7 then mixed in BYOD with home PC’s and iPads to name a few. To summarize, if it was out there, we were reviewing it and most likely incorporated it into our eventual solution set.

This is the first of a series of postings where I’m going to share what worked well, and what maybe not so much. What I can tell you is that we enjoyed many successes, with “success” being measured by end user satisfaction, but there were trials and tribulations getting there. My hope is that these shared lessons can start a dialog while providing guidance for your journeys.

Lesson #1:  Business Case Analysis (Part 1)

Like any well thought out IT project that is considered for pursuit, a detailed business case and/or ROI analysis should be undertaken in order to be shared and ultimately gain leadership approval. In some cases, outside consultants or vendors may be brought in to assist with its development. Whether you build it yourself or gain outside assistance, be sure to be true to your environment. 

Two areas I would urge organizations to invest in up front, even during the business case development process, are use case analysis and application rationalization. The reality is that most organizations, even the most tightly managed and locked down, don’t understand their user bases and resultant use cases to the degree they should. During business case development, it’s easy to say there is simply a marketing use case and we’ll lump everyone together for financial modeling purposes. Not only will every marketing department user take offense to this approach (as they all bring their own uniqueness to the party), it’s simply not true. The point is there is a balance and be extra diligent in trying to summarize them for financial modeling purposes. Tools such as Flexera Software’s Virtual Desktop Assessment can assist in bringing this insight into the conversation and are easily implemented.

As for application rationalization, the same holds true. With today’s system management solutions such as SCCM, a detailed inventory of installed applications can be identified. While this information is often used, it doesn’t tell the full story of which apps are actually being used. Understanding there is a significant difference between what’s installed vs. what a user actually uses is big. This delta exacerbates itself when decisions are being made around how an app is going to be delivered (streamed vs. virtualized vs. locally packaged and installed), and the associated efforts that it will take to make it deliverable. Take the time up front to develop a true master application list that has been properly rationalized.

Next time I’ll get into a few other aspects of the business case development to consider. I’m curious to know what aspects of your business case development approach were unique or unexpected, so please share them. 

Mobile, Modern Apps and Macs: We’re not in MSI land anymore Toto!

By Logan Hutchinson

I’m often asked these question by concerned IT Managers and Administrators: “How do I manage mobile apps?” followed by “I’m approving a boatload of Macs every week, but have no idea where they are going.” or “How can I deploy mobile apps?” and “How do I test compatibility, and do I need to?”    

These are all valid concerns. The proliferation of Macs throughout the Enterprise is a direct result of the exponentially growing demand for mobile apps, be it smartphone or tablet. In the case of iOS, the only way to build these apps is through Xcode, an IDE developed exclusively for iOS and OSX apps that only runs on the OSX Operating System. This leaves most IT Admins in a quandary. They now have laptops and apps proliferating the organization that are not under management, or being tested in a common Application Readiness process.     

This raises new questions with regards to application readiness. What form factor is the target device? What OS does it support? What hardware on the device is it dependent up (front facing camera, accelerometer, display type, etc.)

IT Admins now rely on the software developers to package everything correctly, for both Line of Business (LOB) and store apps, which goes against everything that has been done in packaging for the last decade or so.  

The good news is that there are currently many tools that can help IT wade through these new mobile waters. The Casper Suite from Jamf Software is the de-facto standard for managing Macs in the Enterprise, and Microsoft Config Manager 2012 SP1 supports side loading of .appx (Windows Modern Apps) and .ipa (iOS apps) files. It also supports Mac app management.  

There are also a slew of startups and established organizations that have emerged in the Mobile Device Management (MDM) space including Citrix XenMobile, MobileIron, and Airwatch. These companies are certified Apple partners and have special permissions to get access to the MDM stack built into each iOS device, offering advanced functionality that is not publically available. I have personally seen many of the management interfaces for these tools and they are really good for offering full control to the IT Admin to push Line of Business (LOB) apps to a device, send app store deep links to a user for Store downloads, and manage volume purchasing from an App Store all while enabling IT to maintain the control they need for management and compliance. Developers can also embed MDM API’s on a public App Store app for management within the Enterprise. Through deep links, users can download apps from the store and IT can maintain full control over the app to protect corporate data. This includes things like disabling copy/paste on a corporate app, or not allowing printing of corporate documents outside the firewall.     

In summary, mobile apps, modern apps and Macs bring a whole new dimension to the packaging and deployment ecosystem. IT managers should be prepared to support these new app types and formats. It will mean learning new things outside the traditional MSI and application virtualization landscape, but it’s the path down which we are headed.  

 

Why do Companies Standardize their Application Packaging Processes?

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.

A Smart Strategy for Streamlining and Accelerating Windows 7 Migrations

By: Leslie Easter

Everyday more and more companies are making the move to Windows 7. This continues a trend that we saw slowly increase since the Windows 7 release in 2009. As this process has continued, Flexera Software has built up an impressive resume helping our clients make this migration a smooth and hassle-free process. This experience has taught us one valuable thing: companies can do more to minimize the trauma of migration.

Using AdminStudio as a corner stone for migration, Flexera Software augments this software product with a consulting and services know-how to create a full-featured migration solution. Operating system migration is one of the few IT events that touches the daily working experience of every employee. That level of change should not be taken lightly. While a move to Windows 7 and the increased productivity it boasts is attractive, it's not without certain risks.

Gartner recommends 12-18 months of effort to prepare for a Windows 7 migration and at a cost of $2000 to $3500 per application, moving to Windows 7 isn't going to be quick or cheap. Still there are things that you can do to keep the cost down and at the same time minimize the risk of migration. Flexera Software is offering a free on-demand webinar to assist you in maximizing the success of your Windows 7 migration.

Webinar: A Smart Strategy for Streamlining and Accelerating Windows 7 Migrations

Hear Best Practices from companies that have already deployed Windows 7

Most IT professionals are familiar with the issues and frustrations that can come up during an operating system migration.  With many moving parts and tasks to be accomplished, it is easy to run into problems migrating the thousands of desktop and web applications to Windows 7, finding and fixing their compatibility issues, and then packaging and deploying them is overwhelming.  Adding to the pressure is that mistakes made during the migration can have serious business consequences. Learn from organizations before you how they made the move to Windows 7.  Register Today.

Leveraging Application Rationalization for Current and Future OS Migrations

By: Evan Orgel

When migrating to a new Operating System such as Windows 7, one of the most time consuming tasks is making sure your applications will work with the new platform. Gartner recommends 12-18 months of effort to prepare for the migration.

Many companies are taking the opportunity to perform an Application Rationalization project at the same time. My colleague Gwen Lyons discusses the benefits of Application Rationalization in her blog post: http://blogs.flexerasoftware.com/elo/2012/10/understanding-the-drivers-behind-application-rationalization-critical-to-success.html.

Some of the key goals of Application Rationalization are:

• Reduce the number of applications by
  • eliminating software no longer used
  • consolidating versions
  • eliminating duplicate functionality
• Prioritize applications based on criticality
• Match applications to Departments/Users

Since a great deal of effort goes into the process, it is imperative for companies to make sure that the information collected during this massive effort is not treated as a one-time project, but stored in a repository that can be leveraged as part of the ongoing day-to-day operations. Collecting this information as part of the everyday application packaging/deployment process is vital to making sure that the repository is kept current.

Among the information that should be collected:

• Application Owner/Contact
• Departments/Business Units/Locations
• Criticality
• Classification
• Dependent Applications

Many companies are treating the migration effort separately from the ongoing packaging process. These are often done by different teams that tend to work independently of each other with different process and procedures. It is incumbent on the company to make sure that once the bulk of the migration project has been completed, the operational team is able to maintain the repository.

A well maintained repository containing your applications and all of the relevant information will significantly reduce future migration costs and the amount of time needed.

Application Deployment is Getting More Complex. The Virtues of Simplifying.

By: Randy Littleson

If you're responsible for application deployment within a company, your life is getting more complex. In a small company, you may still travel around to computers to deploy applications – personally ensuring consistency and standardization that makes help desk support reasonable. Of course, in larger companies, this is not an option, so you need to centralize application deployment. The traditional approach has been to have IT staff install an application and then repackage it to conform to corporate standards. Then a system management tool like Microsoft Systems Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) is used to push the application package out to the many Windows desktops throughout the company.

Over the last couple of years, this seemingly straightforward application deployment process has grown much more complex. To start with, as much as 30% of an enterprises' applications change each year, requiring a new deployment to be done each time and making this a full-time job function. Best-in-class companies have developed and automated Application Readiness processes that manage this entire workflow. The steps in a typical process include:

• Identify: identify deployed and used applications
• Rationalize: eliminate duplicate applications from the inventory
• Access Compatibility: determine suitability for migration/upgrade
• Plan: plan the migration or upgrade in line with business objectives
• Fix & Package: convert applications to required format and standardize configuration
• Deploy: deploy the packaged applications

The other major contributor to increasing complexity is the growing diversity in application deployment options. Historically, applications were deployed as on-premise applications – installed on the local desktop or server within your enterprise. And, the format was also pretty standardized – most applications were in the Microsoft MSI format. But, today, application deployment options and formats have evolved to give enterprises more options to optimize costs, management, security, performance and other factors. Today, options exist to utilize SaaS/on-demand and cloud applications, application virtualization and even to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) itself. This growing diversity has the potential to overwhelm the IT organization with help desk requests if not properly managed.

One of the best ways to simplify application deployment while taking advantage of the latest deployment options is to integrate support for them into your Application Readiness process. The exact same steps should be utilized to manage applications regardless of end destination. Standardizing the processes helps ensure consistency, accuracy and results.

In order to do this, you need to make sure that the underlying tools that automate and manage your Application Readiness process support all of the options you want to consider. For instance, your application compatibility capabilities need to support assessing whether an application is going to work on Windows 7 or 8 and/or whether or not application virtualization is an option. Assessing this requires that you support all of the major virtualization vendors – from Microsoft to VMware and Citrix – since our experience has been that few companies standardize just on one and/or may use compatibility assessment as a factor in determining which vendor to go with. Likewise, your fix & package capabilities need to equally support the ability to work on MSI or a virtual application package. You want to be able to train your staff to know how to address all of the variables your organization wishes to leverage and this is simplified if you have a common toolset for managing all of the desired options.

Another dimension to consider is how applications are deployed. While centrally managing and "pushing" applications to desktops will still be the default option for bulk operations, increasingly, companies are seeking ways to embrace the consumerization of IT via enterprise app stores. An enterprise app store lets your users request the applications that they need to do their jobs, while IT ensures that pre-packaged and compatible applications are available in the app store. They also provide governance and control by managing the approval workflows to ensure that people are only requesting applications approved by their management. Handling software requests through an enterprise app store can save a lot of money by reducing help desk costs.

The arrival of new deployment options can be a great asset to IT – helping them deliver more value to the business while increasing security, performance and application management. But, the only way to realize these benefits in a cost effective way is to simplify via a consistent Application Readiness process across all application and deployment types. The ability to package once, deploy anywhere enables IT to really embrace these new options to their advantage.

Preparing for Desktop Transformation

By: Chris Maher

In a Desktop Transformation customer session I recently attended they listed what they considered to be the most challenging areas in priority order:

1. Application Compatibility
2. Application Conflict Resolution
3. Application Packaging
4. Application and OS Delivery
5. Infrastructure Remediation
6. Image Engineering
7. Operational Readiness
8. Training and Education
9. Desktop Security

Of particular note, I found it interesting that they found Application specific areas more challenging than the actual Operating System image. Having an understanding of your applications and the usage patterns of those applications is critical to conducting a successful migration to the next generation desktop.

Desktop transformation initiatives can typically be broken down into the following phases:

1. Identify
2. Rationalize
3. Assess Compatibility
4. Plan
5. Fix and Package
6. Deploy

Identify

The Identify phase is about understanding the applications that are deployed today, the usage of the applications, and their resource requirements. But there is more to it than just knowing what's out there and being used. To architect a truly effective next generation desktop, you must also understand the resource utilization for the applications. If an application uses a lot of memory or performs a lot of I/O, you'll want to know that to help engineer the appropriate delivery vehicle for the application.

It's also critical to understand your end users during this phase. Learn how they are using their applications, what the expected response time is for applications, and how applications are customized to meet their needs.

Rationalize

Once you've identified the applications that are in use today, you need to determine which applications you plan to move forward. This is an important step, and requires a lot of discipline and management buy-in to perform effectively. Remember that any application you eliminate during this step is one less application that has to be managed down the road.

Assess Compatibility

During this phase, applications are tested for compatibility with the solution. This can be testing the applications for the specific Operating System, testing for Application Virtualization, or determining if an application is a good candidate for a VDI solution. There are a number of tools on the market today that can assist in this process, including the Flexera Software AdminStudio Application Compatibility Pack.

Plan

Once you've determined the compatibility for the applications in your portfolio, you can plan your rollout. This includes determining how to deliver the applications. Will they be locally installed, should you leverage Remote Desktop, does VDI make sense both from a delivery and a cost justification standpoint, and will Application Virtualization play a role. At this stage in the project, you should be able to allocate resources and be fairly confident in setting and hitting dates.

Fix and Package

This phase is focused on getting the applications ready for deployment. This can include tweaking the applications to run in your selected environment or converting applications to a new format such as application virtualization.

Deploy

Once the applications are prepared for deployment and the environment is created, end users can be given access to the applications. Again, this may be done using a number of methods, as it depends on the ultimate architecture that you've designed.

Conclusion

Desktop Transformation projects need to be well thought out, with the end user in mind. It's critical to design and implement a solution with minimal impact to the end user. Ideally, the end user experience should be enhanced with the solution. As such, it's important to continue to monitor the environment after the rollout to ensure the end user experience is as advertised.

No matter what the ultimate implementation becomes, applications and how your organization uses them should drive the solution. After all, organizations are run by people using applications, not by desktops.

Application Readiness for the Microsoft Private Cloud

By: Ravi Mazumdar

In my last post, I wrote about the private cloud, its definition and the importance of application readiness in migrating applications to that platform. For now we will focus on Microsoft's IaaS based private cloud technology. Built on Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center 2012 that Microsoft released earlier this year, it includes these key components:

1. Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V: Provides the hypervisor required to the host virtual machines.
2. System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM): The core management piece of the private cloud, System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager includes the deployment and management framework for virtual machines and other resources on the hypervisor.
3. Server App-V: Provides the application virtualization engine for server applications and allows server applications to run inside a bubble in the private cloud.

The key to successful deployment and management of a server application to the private cloud involves the following:

1. Identifying and rationalizing the application landscape: It is important to understand the application landscape to be virtualized whether they are desktop applications or server applications. In both cases there may be instances where an application has multiple versions. There is little point in spending time in virtualizing version 1.0 when version 5.0 is available. Use of advanced software asset management tools will help here.
2. Assessing the application for Server App-V compatibility: Many 3^rd party server applications are provided to enterprises as installable products in the form of MSI files that can be scanned and compatibility assessment done against Server App-V rules and guidelines. The process to manually do this is extremely complex and error prone, therefore the use of automated tools is highly recommended.
3. Converting the suitable applications to the Server App-V format: Similar to desktop App-V, Microsoft provides a tool called the Server App-V Sequencer to package the installable package (MSI) into a Server App-V package. This tool is typically run on a virtual machine running on SCVMM where it monitors the installation to capture the information and convert it into a Server App-V package. While this is a great help in the application virtualization process, streamlining the steps between assessment and conversion and then automating some of them will increase efficiency.
4. Deploying virtualized application to SCVMM: In order for the application to be available to users, it must first be published as a virtualized package to SCVMM. While the sequencer does not allow you to do this, SCVMM provides a number of tools in the form of PowerShell scripts as well as the SCVMM UI that allows you to import a package into its library, create a service template, and deploy it as a service. Again, the process can be made more efficient using tools that provide a simple user interface and automate part of the process.

In conclusion, it is clear that private clouds are here to stay and that they present many benefits as IT transforms the way data centers are managed. Adopting the new wave and taking advantage of the benefits will put you ahead of the curve.