Streaming applications along

This morning I'm wondering why more IT organizations are not streaming applications on demand to end-user desktops. Normally, before moving forward IT wants to be assured from early adopters that a new technology works as advertised and is not a beast to administer. But watching streamed videos over the Internet is now commonplace, as is downloading executables required to view specially formatted files (e.g. users can download a reader for Word 2007 DOCX files if they're still running Office 97). It is time for IT to take a look at the efficiencies and cost savings of streaming certain applications.

In the case of streaming, IT may have concerns over unacceptable latencies that are exposed to the end-user, impact on network bandwidth, and licensing impact for streamed applications. Vendor relationships and support services are also important as with streaming IT assumes more of the responsibility for application availability. However, businesses are successfully relying on application architectures that incorporate streaming from datacenters. There are a few benefits to streaming that are worth noting:

• Compliance becomes easier. End-users stream IT-approved images directly from a server in the controlled datacenter. Streamed applications do not persist on the endpoint - the image typically disappears when the user closes the application. The configuration of the endpoint is not permanently altered.
• End-user experiences are enhanced. The big gain is that end-users do not have to experience the frustration of managing locally installed software. Since streamed applications typically launch well before the download completes, end-users can get right to work without excessive delay. I should also mention that streamed applications can reside on the endpoint for a period of time to support travelling end-users who9 need to work on airplanes.
• IT processes are simplified. IT applies upgrades and patches to the master image of an application in one place - the datacenter. IT does not have to chase remote endpoints to ensure compliance with configuration policies. IT has one repository to manage, and the entire user community executes the latest application version as soon as IT makes it available. In some cases, IT is armed with actual use statistics for an application to negotiate better deals than if they remained with end-user deployed perpetual licenses.

Citrix, Microsoft, Symantec, and VMware are four major infrastructure vendors that do an excellent job of streaming applications from a controlled datacenter to endpoints. If you are interested in servicing user application requests from a compliant server in a datacenter, these are the vendors to have a conversation with.

I'm convinced that streaming applications can make supporting endpoints much simpler and more cost effective for the business. Start small to understand what streaming can do for you in terms of operational cost savings and service times to respond to business application needs.