Hardware virtualization is hot right now, there is no question about it. And with everyone buzzing and talking about "virtualization" in general, hardware virtualization is still getting the lion's share of the headlines. In many cases, people are leveraging hardware or server virtualization so that they can isolate and operate their applications. And in many of those instances, perhaps those people could have u Hardware virtualization is hot right now, there is no question about it. And with everyone buzzing and talking about “virtualization” in general, hardware virtualization is still getting the lion’s share of the headlines. In many cases, people are leveraging hardware or server virtualization so that they can isolate and operate their applications. And in many of those instances, perhaps those people could have used an application virtualization technology instead to accomplish the same goal with a slightly different result. One such player, Xenocode, recently launched its flagship offering called Xenocode Virtual Application Studio. The company says it is a next-generation application virtualization environment that allows Windows .Net and Java-based desktop applications to be deployed in standalone executables that run instantly and reliably, anywhere. Xenocode described traditional application deployment as:Slow because of time-consuming setup and customization Insecure because it doesn’t support locked-down desktops Unreliable, with application collisions and Vista migrations as examples“Application virtualization is the next wave of virtualization technology, with compelling performance, flexibility, and economic advantages over traditional hardware virtualization,” said Kenji Obata, Xenocode founder and CEO. “With Xenocode’s application virtualization technology, organizations can largely eliminate the enormous costs, risks, and limitations associated with traditional desktop application deployment and enable a new level of application portability.” Sounds good, doesn’t it? Even the hardware virtualization giant, VMware, bought into the application virtualization marketing. VMware jumped into the game after it had acquired Thinstall, and their Project North Star is edging closer to a GA release. Others have been doing this for a while as well. I’ve mentioned Altiris SVS Pro a few times now. The company was purchased by Symantec, and the technology has been pushing forward, recently uniting application virtualization and streaming with the acquisition of AppStream. So how does Xenocode differentiate itself from other technologies? Obata told me that “Xenocoded” applications don’t require any clients, device drivers, or other infrastructure servers to operate. Xenocode binaries walk, talk, and quack like standard Windows executables. They can be deployed using your existing desktop management infrastructure (including SMS, Altiris, LANDesk, BMC, etc.), or just dropped on Web pages, file shares, or USB keys. Obata added, “Xenocode is designed for ease-of-use (a major obstacle to adoption) and maximum application compatibility (a major obstacle to technology implementation). Generally speaking, we are 100 percent focused on application virtualization and envision ourselves as the high-volume, low-cost, vendor-neutral provider of this technology.”When asked about Xenocode’s approach to application virtualization, Brad Rowland, Symantec director of marketing, endpoint virtualization, said, “We’ve heard about the agentless approach before. The fact remains, there must be a virtualization agent or technology hidden somewhere. In this case, the application virtualization occurs in each application instance, which increases the size and complexity of the environment and defeats the purpose of virtualization.” Rowland added, “Years ago, Symantec pioneered the idea of platform-agnostic endpoint virtualization and streaming. We are not tied to Microsoft, Citrix, or VMware management and virtualization infrastructures but support all alternative compute models.” He went on to say that Xenocode doesn’t offer streaming technology, but they recommend Symantec AppStream for a streaming solution.The market is growing. And as Xenocode, Symantec, VMware, and others all continue to go after what IDC describes as an $11.7 billion market by 2011, the application virtualization technology will continue to mature and end-users will continue to find ways and reasons to deploy it in their environment. Software Development