Extensive Application Deployment with Minimal Resources
In the summer of 2003, Central Michigan University (CMU) deployed more than
40 applications throughout the university. Using the technology we had at our
disposal, this would have taken at least six months. We didn’t have nearly
that much time.
Resource-Consuming Obstacles
We run most applications via Terminal Services and Citrix MetaFrame Presentation
servers to enable more cost-effective, centralized management. However, to meet
this back-to-school deadline we had to overcome challenges that, to date, had
made deploying applications extremely time-consuming:
· Inability to run multiple versions of the same applications on the
same server:
Seven of ourkey applications used various versions of Crystal Reports, a popular
data-reporting program. Since different software versions cannot run on the
same server simultaneously, we would have had to build and manage separate Terminal
Services server groups, each running a different version of Crystal Reports.
This would have required eight different servers. It also would have meant that
each server would have been significantly underutilized, running at perhaps
30-40 percent of its capacity.
· Applications that would not run more than one instance in Terminal Services:
Several applications, including the conference scheduling software many of our
staff rely on, could not run multiple instances in Terminal Services. Because
they couldn’t be deployed via our server-based system, IT had to manually
install and support these programs on every user’s desktop. This went
counter to the very reason we were using Citrix server-based computing in the
first place, since one of its greatest strengths is to centralize the administration
of applications.
Application Virtualization
Our implementation vendor, RapidApp, told us we could totally eliminate these
application conflict and multi-instance problems by using a new platform that
virtualizes applications. The system, called Softricity SoftGrid (www.
softricity.com), transforms Windows applications from products that must be
installed and managed locally into virtual services you can deploy and manage
centrally—even to remote laptops—without any recoding.
To eliminate application conflicts, SoftGrid avoids writing files directly
to the registry and instead redirects them to its virtual “sandbox,”
a protective run-time environment that executes programs without altering the
host computer.
Table 1 shows how the Windows application installs normally—permanently
modifying the operating system’s settings, including writing to the Registry,
and installing specific versions of Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs). Table 2 shows
how a Windows application runs with SoftGrid—using a virtual copy of all
its settings so they do not modify the operating system upon which the application
is executing.
Accelerating Deployment, Simplifying Management
Using SoftGrid, we met our back-to-school deadline—and built a flexible
software infrastructure that easily and cost-effectively accommodates future
growth and changes.
By simplifying each phase of the application management process and centralizing
deployment of all applications, even those used by remote users, we were able
to complete the project in just one month instead of the six months it would
have taken. One of the keys to enabling this was the elimination of regression
testing, which is used to ensure that applications won’t conflict with
each other by overwriting one another’s systems settings. Since it’s
estimated that up to 30 percent of Windows applications conflict when installed,
regression is critical—yet incredibly time-consuming and tedious. By virtualizing
applications and updates, we’ve eliminated the need for this process and
vastly accelerated time-to-deployment. As a result, we can be much more responsive
to ongoing end-user needs.
Centralized Environment
By eliminating application conflict, we can run any version of Crystal Reports
on the same server at the same time. In addition, the applications that we had
to manually install on every desktop, now run multiple sessions on each server.
As a result, we can centrally deploy and manage all our applications. This is
significant because we had chosen server-based computing because of its total-cost-of-ownership
savings, but having even one application that can’t be centrally managed
this way significantly reduces those gains. Being only partially centralized
is not enough—the goal is to manage all applications from a single console,
and now we can.
Enhanced Security
We can now give students access to key applications and still maintain high
security because the applications reside on the network, not the desktop. This
also helps us easily manage deployment of critical security patches. Instead
of having to go from desktop to desktop installing patches, now all we need
to do is make one change on our server and it stays up-to-date Given the increasing
frequency of updates and patches with all the viruses and worms that have invaded
networks, this has become an essential part of our infrastructure.