Microsoft to enable virtualized streaming of 64-bit apps by 2010
Microsoft is continuing to expand on what its application virtualization product (App-V, the product formerly known as SoftGrid) can do.
At the TechEd Barcelona show this week, Microsoft execs touted new capabilities it plans to roll out in this space over the next few years. Officials said they will enable App-V to support streaming of 64-bit applications and platforms in the first half of 2010. The Technology Adoption Program (TAP) testing of this functionality is slated to begin in late 2009.
(A quick refresher: App-V is built from technology Microsoft acquired in early 2006 when it bought Softricity. It lets users run applications without actually installing them on a local machine. This allows companies who want to make available a single image of Office or a custom line-of-business application to multiple users by pushing it out to them without having to touch each desktop. App-V is one piece of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), which Microsoft sells to Software Assurance customers only.)
From the MDOP blog:
"By adding 64-bit support, we’re helping to IT administrators take full advantage of new, faster hardware and provide a higher level of service, security and flexibility to their businesses. 64-bit support will be included for both App-V client and server infrastructure components and fully compatible with Microsoft’s 64-bit operating systems."
Microsoft will add 64-bit support to all of the existing App-V offerings -- App-V for desktops, App-V for Terminal Services and App-V for hosters (an option the company just added to its line-up in September 2008).
Microsoft also reiterated in the aforementioned MDOP blog post its timetable for delivery of a new, sixth element to its MDOP collection. A forthcoming offering called MED-V, or Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, is due out in the first half of 2009. A beta of MED-V will be available to testers in the first calendar quarter of next year, according to the company.
MED-V is the repackaged and updated Kidaro virtualization technology which Microsoft acquired earlier this year.