Quoting from MarketWire:
Softricity announced today SoftGrid Enterprise Edition, an application management platform that uses virtualization technology to transform large organizations into utility computing environments. Designed for large-scale, geographically dispersed IT environments, SoftGrid Enterprise will enable customers like Northeastern University to manage applications with minimal IT support, ensure immediate access to all applications in case of disasters, and provide applications to end-users in real-time regardless of their location.
“SoftGrid is perfect for Northeastern University’s complex heterogeneous IT environment,” said Richard E. Mickool, Executive Director of Information Services, Northeastern University. “We manage hundreds of applications, from high-end engineering software to multiple versions of the same word processor. All of them need to be available on our public desktops used by students and staff, which means we spend a tremendous amount of time regression testing each time we roll out a new application or patch. By taking advantage of SoftGrid’s application virtualization abilities, testing to make sure that one application does not break another is no longer needed. This means we can enable any user to go up to any computer on campus and get exactly the applications they need. SoftGrid addresses key issues we thought might never be solved.”
“Utility computing promises to help dynamic enterprises handle IT complexities more easily and cost-effectively. SoftGrid Enterprise can make this possible for applications with a new approach to a virtualized environment that addresses the real challenges of large, global organizations in a simple, reliable way,” said Dan Kusnetzky, Vice President, System Software Research, IDC.
SoftGrid Enterprise Edition
Without any re-programming, SoftGrid transforms Windows applications from products that must be installed locally into virtual services that can be centrally configured, managed, and deployed on-demand to desktop, laptops and servers. SoftGrid’s patented “Application Virtualization” enables applications to run without installation or alteration to the host operating system, allowing any applications to run side-by-side without conflict or the need for regression testing.
The new SoftGrid Enterprise Edition was enhanced with capabilities that meet the unique needs of large-scale organizations:
-) ?Application Portability? for Network-free Delivery of Virtualized Applications
IT can have all the advantages of application virtualization without delivering applications across a network. Designed for end-users on low-bandwidth connections, SoftGrid?s Application Portability supports the deployment of virtualized applications via CD or data keys instead of network delivery. Once deployed, the virtualized applications have all the advantages of network-delivered SoftGrid applications, including license compliance and real-time access to updates and patches anywhere in the world.
-) ?Application Replication? for Business Continuity and Branch Office Support
By virtualizing applications, SoftGrid turns applications into data files. As a result, these virtualized applications can be treated ? and replicated ? just like data, making them much easier to manage. This enables:
-) Seamless, synchronized disaster recovery for applications:
Applications are kept up-to-date between live sites and back-up sites by automatically replicating virtualized applications files on the live sites? SoftGrid servers with the SoftGrid servers at the back-up site. This not only provides dramatic time savings ? the alternative is to install application to each terminal server and desktop at the back-up site each time a change is made at the live site ? it also reduces end-user downtime to minutes instead of hours or days in case of a disaster.
-) Branch office support:
Using application replication, anytime an application update or patch is added to a SoftGrid server at the main data center, the change is automatically replicated to branch office servers, which then deploy the change to local end-users. This greatly reduces WAN traffic, and enables IT to update applications for an entire global organization with one change to their central SoftGrid server.
-) Enabling the Virtual Desktop for ?Free Seating? and ?Hoteling?
Dynamic organizations must be able to seamlessly assign people new desktops and quickly provide them with applications they need. This is critical for replacing desktops that fail and for users that access ?hoteling? desktops (where different people use the same desktops at different times). Without SoftGrid, this requires the time-consuming process of re-installing the operating system and applications each time a new user accesses the computer.
SoftGrid?s combination of virtualization, on-demand delivery and user-driven application rights transforms machines from being application-centric to user-centric. This means that based on users? credentials, they?ll automatically get access to applications they have the right to regardless of the client device. This also impacts business continuity, as any user can be moved to any location served by SoftGrid and get just the applications they have the right to access.
-) Increased scalability
SoftGrid now supports over 1,000 concurrent connections on a single processor SoftGrid Virtual Application Server.
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Pricing and Availability
SoftGrid Enterprise Edition will be available this summer. It is priced per concurrent user. Starter solutions begin at approximately $15,000. SoftGrid is available through Softricity and its Partners.