News Release
Andover, MA November 18, 2009 - Server application virtualization pioneer AppZero has announced a Dissolve capability in a 4.1 update to AppZero for Windows. Dissolve is AppZero's response to a distinct customer segment that wants to exploit the benefits of seamless application portability across clouds and data center environments, reverting to native installation for production environments.
AppZero technology encapsulates a server application in a Virtual Application Appliance (VAA), which contains all of the app's dependencies, but with zero operating system (OS) component. The VAA, freed from any OS encumbrance, can move seamlessly from data center to, and among, clouds and back across both physical and virtual servers. As the name implies, the newly announced Dissolve function makes a VAA disappear, leaving an application in its native state.
The dissolve capability used in conjunction with AppZero's revolutionary server application virtualization technology creates choice and flexibility when it comes to server application deployment. This flexibility, which ranges from complete application mobility to server-bound native installation, directly benefits the enterprise, ISVs and SIs across a broad spectrum of application life cycles.
AppZero's unmatched mobility of server-side applications makes it easy for enterprise data centers to instantaneously provision a single copy of a "gold" application image to 1,000s of machines in the data center and/or to any cloud or combination of clouds. This automation of installation and configuration of server applications speeds deployment, reduces errors, and cuts the need for a human touch.
Likewise, ISVs can provision their applications in clouds from any number of providers. Enjoying agility and great economy of scale, ISVs use the cloud for development/test, QA, customer demonstrations, proof-of-concepts, and pilots. When a potential customer becomes a signed client, the ISV can deliver the application to the production environment - datacenter or cloud, physical or virtual server - complete with all tailoring and tuning that may have been done in the trial.
Both ISVs and enterprise clients can invoke AppZero's Dissolve capability to make AppZero's encapsulation disappear, allowing for the application to install natively, bonded to the server. The advantage of this capability is that it removes any potential warranty dispute regarding support by third parties, freeing customers to get support from their vendors. The disadvantage is that, once dissolved, AppZero's encapsulation technology is no longer available to that application so portability is effectively dissolved as well.
"The ability to freely move across cloud and datacenter environments without any sort of lock-in is a primary AppZero value proposition," said Greg O'Connor, AppZero president and CEO. "ISVs also enjoy an economy of scale that lets them provision thousands of customers from a single gold image. But at the end of the day, some data center environments will demand business as usual. Dissolve makes it happen."
About AppZero
AppZero software virtualizes Windows and Unix server applications for nearly instant provisioning as services across a network, on any server (physical or virtual), in the datacenter or in the cloud. First to market with a toolset for virtualizing server-side applications, AppZero has pioneered the Virtual Application Appliance (VAA), in which an application is encapsulated with all of its dependencies - but without any operating system (OS) component. The result is server applications that are 100% portable with zero footprint and performance near native levels. For enterprises and ISVs intrigued by the capital-free potential of pay-as-you-go-computing, AppZero provides a smooth on-ramp to the cloud without any cloud lock-in. Requiring no modification to existing applications, AppZero makes it technically easy and economically sensible to explore and exploit cloud computing. Follow Greg O'Connor on Twitter @gregoryjoconnor or become an AppZero Fan on Facebook.
