Multitenancy and application virtualization:

 

Application virtualization enables applications to be available to end-users and their computers without requiring direct installation. It is made possible through a process called sequencing the application, which enables each application to run in its own self-contained virtual environment on the client computer. The sequenced applications are isolated from one another, and they can continue to interact with the client computer.

 

There is a client made available to leverage application virtualization and lets the end users interact with the application once it has been published. The client manages the virtual environment in which the applications run. Publishing is the process by which the application is made available to the client computer. This process copies the virtual application icons and shortcuts to the computer as well as the package definition and the file type association to the computer. When the content is made available to the end user’s computer, it behaves as if it is installed locally.

 

The package content can also be copied locally into one or more Application virtualization servers so that it can be streamed down to the clients on demand and cached locally. File servers and web servers can also be used as streaming servers or copied directly to a destination computer as in the case of an electronic software distribution system. In a multi-server implementation, maintaining the package content, and keeping it up to date on all the streaming servers requires a comprehensive package management system. When the size of the organization is large and the number of client computers is large and geographically spread out, a comprehensive packaging and publishing helps. Managing the package to ensure that the applications are available and accessible to all users is important.

 

Multitenant solutions have often found a need for an application store to collect all the applications that can be used by their users on their tenant resources. Those users download the application after consent and purchase and then use it locally. This experience can be improved with the application virtualization without involving the user for unnecessary setup and cleanup operations.

One of the biggest appeals of using this technology is its potential to enable the rewriting of existing commercial software. Rewrites and making the software available in the cloud via an application store might sound unappetizing or less glamorous than a new groundbreaking product but it aligns with the drive towards pushing commoditization of technology deeper into the cloud. This calls for actions to go beyond the marketplace store to share applications as a slice is reserved for commitments from the public cloud provider in the form equivalent to enterprise blocks and application patterns for repurposed, streamlined, and optimized workflows with extensibility for cross-cloud integrations.