Acresso streamines virtual application packaging and integrates with the App-V....

It just keeps getting better and better. I saw Steve Schmidt, VP Product Management, Acresso Software as I made my way over to the coffee station on the last day and told him that the excitement generated by their recent announcement for AdminStudio and App-V was amazing.

 SeanDô – Steve, your recent announcement that AdminStudio would soon start to generate App-V packages in the same way it does MSI’s was big. Can you give me the high level details of the solution?

SS - For years, AdminStudio has helped thousands of IT teams prepare and manage their applications for error-free deployment. Now our customers are asking us to help them with one of their biggest challenges – rolling out virtualized applications. This can be a daunting task that requires intense coordination of resources and time to plan and test. AdminStudio, with expertise in application readiness, will help Microsoft App-V customers simplify the rollout by allowing them to leverage the work that they have already done. AdminStudio can confirm which applications are appropriate for virtualization and enables rapid deployment to the new App-V SFT virtual format.

SeanDô – OK. So I have heard from customers for the better part of 5 years now reluctance to learn and use a different packaging solution like the App-V Sequencer. Is there more business value to this than solving the packager concern?

SS - The key value that AdminStudio offers is to eliminate tedious and time consuming steps in planning for, creating, and managing virtualized applications (as well as MSI applications). When dealing with thousands of applications at one time, IT teams are looking for a way to save time and money to keep on track with the reality of tightened budgets in today’s economy. In recent third-party studies, AdminStudio demonstrated up to 60% time savings in preparing applications for virtualization, compared to natively provided tools by virtualization technology vendors. AdminStudio also provides a management infrastructure for cataloging, tracking and reporting on all the applications and the process around their preparation. In addition, all of this functionality is provided via the familiar interface used by thousands of customers today to create MSI packages, further increasing their efficiency and the reliability of the output.

 SeanDô – Sounds great Steve. When do you expect this to be available?

SS - A beta version of the new AdminStudio Virtualization Pack will support App-V at the end of 2008. Our early adopter customers can apply to participate in the Beta program now. General release of the updated Virtualization Pack is expected in early 2009. You can get more information at https://www.acresso.com/pl/adminstudio-appv-beta.htm

Thanks for the information Steve. This will be a fundamental change in how people virtualize their applications.

Sean Donahue is a Sr. Program Manager in System Center Alliances. If you are an ISV who has an integration point with App-V or MDOP please contact Sean.