Novell today announced the launch of Novell ZENworks Application Virtualization (Zav). Born from a partnership with Xenocode, a company founded by former Microsoft engineers, Novell Zav makes it possible to package Windows applications inside a virtual container to ease their deployment while minimizingrisks of application conflicts and compatibility problems between applications.
The applications encapsulated by Zav can be run directly on Windows 2000, XP and Vista. They require no installation or configuration and are not subject to any dependency issues, DLL conflicts or Registry problems. Each virtualized apps resides in a container that bundles the libraries and components required to run the application or applications it contains. Within the container a micro kernel developed by Xenocode ensures that applications are properly isolated from the OS and other apps. Usage scenarios are multiple : for example, it is possible to make Office 2003 run alongside Office 2007 or, after a migration from XP to Vista, to make Internet Explorer 6 cohabit with IE7.
Applications virtualized by Zav can be deployed on USB keys, but also through the network withany deployment software such as Microsoft System Center SMS, LANDesk, BMC Configuration Management, Altiris Client Management Suite or Novell ZENworks. The use of Zav also has additional benefits in terms of security : ”Because of the functions included in the virtualization layer, one can control the use of an application, set expiration dates or limit the use according to the location of the user. By coupling the Novell Endpoint Security solution and Zav, it even becomes possible to prohibit the use of an application in case of a critical security flaw or because of “fraudulent use”. So far Novell has certified more than 70 software applications on Zenworks Application Virtualization including Firefox, Microsoft Office, many ERP applications and Adobe. The company provides packaging blueprints for many of these programs, but every customer is free to design its own packages”.
ZenWorks Application Virtualization is the latest component of a virtualization portfolio of solutions already well stocked, that includes Novell server virtualization solution (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server), Novell Zenworks Orchestrator. The last missing link for Novell is a session brocker that would allow the company to challenge Citrix, Microsoft and VMWare in the Desktop virtualization (VDI Like) market. My advice : Keep watching Novell in this arena…
