Novell licenses Xenocode’s application virtualization technology

Is application virtualization as popular and widespread as desktop or server virtualization? No. But the technology is starting to catch on and fill niche markets.

Application virtualization hasn’t come into its own yet. But with Microsoft, Symantec, and VMware each having acquired smaller companies that created this type of technology, these giants now own a piece of that market and are starting to position its benefits to OEMs and end-users. It’s now only a matter of time before consumers and the media get educated on this virtualization platform.

Virtualizing applications eliminates application conflicts and compatibility problems in Windows environments. And it offers organizations and users the ability to run legacy applications on Microsoft Vista and deploy and operate multiple versions of applications side by side in isolated “sandbox” environments. As an example, you can run different versions of Windows Internet Explorer or Microsoft Office on the same machine without any conflicts.

Another industry giant that has identified the usefulness of this technology is Novell. The company recently announced that it would begin licensing Xenocode’s application virtualization technology for its Novell ZENworks Application Virtualization solution. Doing so will allow Novell’s customers to deploy their own applications inside a “virtual container” without any installation or configuration fuss.

Kenji Obata, Xenocode founder and CEO, said, “This licensing agreement provides a powerful, integrated solution for large organizations to assure instant availability of applications across all versions and desktop platforms.”

ZENworks Application Virtualization includes pre-configured templates for popular business applications and is supposed to let users virtualize and deploy their applications in as little as five minutes.

It separates applications from the underlying operating system by emulating core features that are required for application execution. These applications become simple .exe files that run without requiring additional servers or other hardware, device drivers, or player software. Security is assured as well since the virtualized applications don’t require access to the file system or registry.

Again, it is only a matter of time as this technology continues to mature.