Deploy virtualized applications
With Specops Virtual Deploy, providing Microsoft App-V virtual applications to your clients is just as easy as managing any other type of software package. Specops Virtual Deploy uses the same intuitive interface you find in our award winning Specops Deploy software deployment platform.
Virtual software deployment
Specops Virtual Deploy's Software Deployment/Software Distribution functionality snaps right in to the Group Policy Management console (GPMC). The user interface is very consistent, clear and helpful making software distribution quick. There is no need to read through thick manuals before getting started with this Group Policy based Software distribution tool.
Virtual applications are not installed like normal applications on the client computer. Instead the application is published, which means that the application will be downloaded to the local computer when the user uses it for the first time. This makes patching a virtual application very simple. After a patch has been applied the new version of the virtual application is simply added to a streaming server and tagged as an upgrade. The upgraded application will then be downloaded to replace the outdated local version the next time a user starts it.
Reporting and targeting
Specops Virtual Deploy offers detailed feedback of all application deployments. Getting good feedback is the key to successfully managing your virtual applications. Specops Virtual Deploy not only reports status on all deployments. Virtual applications can also be published both during boot/logon, after the computer is started and after the user have logged on, which ensures that the application is delivered to the user. The support for a background BITS download also helps to ensure delivery since it makes the software accessible for VPN users.
With Specops Virtual Deploy target groups can be chosen for every software deployment. This admits an advanced form of targeting, such as Registry key matching, that is difficult to achieve with other existing products.
Application virtualization
Specops Virtual Deploy makes it possible to take advantage of Microsoft App-V application virtualization directly, using only existing investments in infrastructure and knowledge. This is accomplished by combining the power of Group Policy and Microsoft App-V.
Microsoft App-V
Microsoft App-V 4.5 is Microsoft’s first internally developed application virtualization product; it is developed from the code base of SoftGrid Application Virtualization acquired by Microsoft from Softricity in 2006. With Microsoft App-V it is possible to create virtual applications that can be used on computers with the App-V client and thus solving problems like:
Running different versions of the same applications on the same computer although the application itself does not support it.
Creating virtual applications that can be installed, patched and uninstalled without breaking the operating system it is being installed on, this technology can be used to solve a large number of situations that today costs a considerable amount to handle. A very common example is the scenario where an application is needed by a few number of users for a specific need, e.g. a home grown system to manage orders or similar. To avoid having to test this program with every other application supported in the organization platform to know that the program itself or the setup itself does not break the system, it can simply be virtualized and rolled out to the few user that need it.
Components
With Specops Virtual Deploy the two components needed is the App-V Sequencer and the App-V client.