For the past few weeks Ive been organizing my thoughts about Softricitys February 6, 2006 announcement on how they will be working with the Microsoft Manageability Team to offer application virtualization and streaming within Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS). What did the announcement really say? What does this mean for Microsoft? What does this mean for Citrixs Project Tarpon and Altiriss Software Virtualization Solution? Most importantly, what does this mean for you?

What Is This Announcement all about?

First off, let me explain the basics of this very important announcement. To summarize, Softricity has partnered with Microsoft to offer a product that integrates Softricity SoftGrid - including application virtualization, on-demand streaming and self-provisioning right into Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS). This means that any SMS customer can now virtualize their applications and use them throughout their existing SMS application deployment. They can push out virtualized applications using SMS delivery push methods, stream them on-demand using Softricitys pull methods, and they can use SMSs metering and asset management tools to discover and track both MSIs and virtualized applications.

Softricity is offering two version of the product. SoftGrid for SMS Universal allows you to do all the things you can do with SoftGrid (virtualization and streaming) from within SMS. SoftGrid for SMS VX (virtual extensions) just lets you virtualize and uses the SMS push delivery to get the virtualized applications to end-users.

With this solution, there is no longer a need for a SoftGrid Management Console and, with their VX version (virtualization only, no streaming), the SoftGrid Server. The only requirement is for applications to be virtualized through Softricitys Sequencer. This process is very similar to most traditional packaging tools, so basically it means that if you have an SMS deployment, you dont have to change much in your process to get the benefits of virtualization and streaming.

What does this mean for Softricity?

This is huge for Softricity! What the announcement amounts to is a message to the market that Microsoft has picked its partner for virtualization and streaming. In addition to the technical benefits of this announcement, it is important to understand that Microsoft is working with Softricity to sell this solution to their SMS user base. The reason for this is that it benefits both parties as well as the end-user. Softricity benefits by being selected as the go-to player for virtualization and streaming and the ability to enter a market where Microsoft currently holds 40% of the enterprise and 30% of SMB application seats. Microsoft gains because they can now say they solve many of the underling issues that have caused problems and held up SMS deployments. In my humble opinion, this announcement is ground breaking as you are now able to manage your application deployment, upgrades, removal, licensing compliance, and asset inventory needs with one solution.

What does this mean for Microsoft?

Much of the complaining about SMS, whether by users or the press, can be boiled down to one thing: the problem of application conflicts. For more information on this issue with SMS and other EDS solutions, please read my To Install or Not paper.

Now with SoftGrid for Microsoft SMS, there is the opportunity for SMS to eliminate many of the issues that has held up its adoption. Most of the cons detailed in my To Install or Not paper (conflicts, testing, etc.) are negated by deploying those applications through application virtualization via SoftGrid. Simply put, this means Microsoft has addressed SMSs short-comings, enabling to be the most complete solution for application deployment on the market today.

What does this mean for Citrix?

Since Microsoft has now partnered with Softricity, the question then becomes where this leaves Citrixs Project Tarpon and Altiriss Software Virtualization Solution? Lets talk about Citrix Project Tarpon first.

Citrixs Project Tarpon was first announced at Citrix iForum 2005. Citrix describes it as a streaming solution. It is basically Citrixs entry into the software distribution and systems management market, designed to distribute applications to a desktop and address application conflicts by utilizing their Application Isolation Environment technology found in their flagship product, Presentation Server 4.0 (which, if you read my To Install or Not paper, I believe is not true application virtualization). As Project Tarpon is still in alpha, and no official beta and/or technical previews have been made available to us/me, I am not able to go into how Citrix products compares and competes with Microsoft SMS other than what is already detailed in my To Install or Not paper.

But you do have to question what will happen when they start to compete with SMS. Theres no doubt the best thing going for Citrix is their channel. They have one of the biggest and most loyal resellers in the industry. Just look what they did with Citrix Access Gateway. Acquired from Net6, Citrix was able to use their vast channel to take the SSL VPN market by storm. However, it is going to be interesting to watch what happens when Project Tarpon finally ships and they start competing with Microsoft. Citrix might find that succeeding in a market Microsoft currently dominates may be a little bit more difficult than even they can muster. We will have to wait and see.

For more information on Citrix Application Streaming (Project Tarpon) please visit: http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/technology/feature.asp?contentID=22714

What does this mean for Altiris?

Unlike Citrix, Altiris currently has a beta version of software virtualization solution on the market with plans to integrate it into their broader application deployment solution. Altiris currently holds 6% of the enterprise and 10% of SMB application deployment market, and has solutions for almost every facet of server and application deployment and management (they are Microsofts number one competitor in the systems management space). This has always given Altiris a leg up on any new area of application deployment they want to dive into, but with the Softricity / Microsoft agreement, Altiris has found that their rival in traditional application deployment, Microsoft, will be marketing against them. Thus Altiris has become an even more direct competitor to Microsoft SMS. As Microsoft is very competitive in the enterprise space and because SMS is almost given away to Microsoft enterprise customers, it seems to me that Softricity has the upper hand in gaining even more market share in the application virtualization market.

For more information on Altiris Software Virtualization please visit: http://www.altiris.com/Products/SoftwareVirtualizationSolution.aspx

What does this mean for you?

So what does this mean to you? Without going in to too much detail about the problems we face around deploying and managing applications, I will just say that we have always had a problem with application deployments due to the nature of distributed network computing. We are required to perform asset inventory and software license metering due to license agreements and industry compliance regulations which can be done using any of the numerous products available today. With the new Microsoft / Softricity partnership there is the opportunity to standardize on the industry leader, Microsoft System Management Sever (SMS), while overcoming application conflicts with the Softricity SoftGrid for Microsoft SMS.

Of course, this is only one part of the unified solution to the application management and deployment challenge. Microsoft SMS coupled with Softricity SoftGrid for SMS, Terminal Services / Citrix, and RES PowerFuse (as discussed in The Quest for Unified Management) guarantees excellent application response time and functionality for end-users by allowing them to compute via workstations, laptops and terminal servers, while the backend system and application administration, licensing, asset control is controlled through two easy-to-use tools.

Additional Resources:

View the Official Softricity announcement webinar. Presented by Softricitys Don Potts, Microsoft Alliance Manager and Jeff Fisher, Director of Business Development. http://www.softricity.com/news/webinar-archive.asp?eventID=sms20060209

View the Application Streaming for Desktop Apps section of the iForum 2005 General Session Keynote. Presented by: Mark Templeton, Citrix president and CEO. http://www.citrixevents.com/English/news/videoset.asp?eventID=104&cID=2155ion=News

Listen to the Altiris Software Virtualization Solution Podcast. Presented by Steve Morton, Altiriss VP of Product Marketing and Scott Jones, Software Virtualization Solution Product Manager. http://news.altiris.com/podcast/Altiris_Podcast_1_SVS.mp3

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