As an IT strategy, application virtualization is advanced as a best-practice solution in two critical scenarios. In services environments, application virtualization is implemented as a VDI solution incorporating application virtualization as a means of controlling the desktop environment.

Deployed in data centers with Citrix Presentation Servers, application virtualization is a strong deployment strategy, speeding access and assuring integrity of the host system. Distributed from a share file, companies save the cost and headache of adding and managing siloed servers. This session will provide use-case illustrations to de-mystify application virtualization and outline the business benefits of applying this technology.

The question for the IT professional becomes “How do I reduce cost and increase utilization of my infrastructure and at the same time support – and improve – SLAs?” The answer to this question lies in the rise of virtualization technologies and their direct impact on the way IT delivers value to the business. Specifically, application virtualization enables the alignment of demand for applications with the available supply of compute resources. It also does this based on the relative importance of an application, or class of consumer, with the automatic allocation of available resources based on policy – determined by the business.

In this session, Troan will discuss best practices on how to build virtual appliances including:

• Building an integrated collaboration suite appliance
• Creating a virtual appliance image with a simple click of a button
• Reducing build size by creating a tailored operating system that reduces the amount of space to install, install time and the security exposure created when providing ongoing updates to the software.

• Level of integration between Windows and OS X
• Deployment and management best practices
• Hardware & recommended configurations
• Common use cases

- Providing stable computing platforms

- Rapid server procurement

- Leveraging commodity hardware

- Leveraging Open Source technologies

- Maintaining flexibility as new solutions are required

- Integrating proprietary and Open Source solutions harmoniously

- Enabling secure and reliable communications with systems regardless of their location on the Internet

- Exposing elements of systems management to customers

In spite of the technical risks involved, reusable components are core to the SOA vision. In order to fully reap the benefits of SOA and Web services, it is critical that companies find an efficient and robust solution that mitigates risk, increases trust, and ultimately promotes reuse. However, in order to promote trust in the business components that are to be reused, policies that determine how the services are handled must be followed and enforced.

The ability to attain the benefits of service orientation is largely constrained by the ability to manage the various SOA domains: security, management, registry, development, orchestration/composite services, and enablement/integration. The lack of a solid SOA governance strategy throughout the entire service lifecycle can result in an inconsistent and uncontrollable IT infrastructure that compromises the benefits of SOA. This SOA governance strategy is just the first step. A governance strategy without the capability to enforce the prescribed policies is destined for failure.

• Provides hardware independence, enabling support for legacy applications while embracing new standards
• Simplifies desktop management, reducing operational risk and support costs
• Promotes security and data confidentiality using encryption and leak prevention techniques
• Enhances mobility and disaster recovery planning, enabling employees to access corporate applications and data from anywhere, without requiring server farm and enabling access even when disconnected from the network

The highly evolved, yet pragmatic SOA methodology Matsumura will describe can prevent you getting bogged down in heavyweight governance strategies. He will show the audience how to focus on what's important and yet still develop an infrastructure for change.

With its ability to streamline communication across the VSAT network and improve the system’s performance while delivering all the same features and functionality of the application, Nexaweb’s technology was quickly selected for deployment. This solution enabled Best Western to extend the life of its existing infrastructure investment, significantly improve the application’s performance without costly upgrades, and enjoy the drastic reduction in the system’s latency issues. Testing conducted after implementation showed: the new system to be 70% faster and that network traffic was reduced by over 90%.

This session will explore how:

*Using a Nexaweb-powered application ensures the efficient use of existing bandwidth

*To free up additional bandwidth for future growth

In this session we will discuss how virtualization can streamline, simplify and remove layers of technology. We will consider this approach in contrast to the normal technology evolution where new technology is usually layered on top of or along side of existing technology, creating an ever more complex and fragile infrastructure. How implementing a virtual environment for the main reason of creating business value and increased productivity has significant other ancillary benefits in the security, business continuity, disaster recovery, support costs, standardization, governance and performance monitoring areas.

The flexibility and adaptability that the virtualized environment creates, means that the infrastructure won't lag behind the business strategy. With a virtualized infrastructure in place business strategies changes can now be accommodated without having to make significant changes the infrastructure.

Amerisure will be considered as a case study as a company that made the metamorphosis from a typical complex, inflexible, physically limiting infrastructure to a streamlined, flexible and agile virtual infrastructure. We'll consider the phases of the virtualization of the workstations, servers, mobile notebooks, softphones and information assets (documents, video, audio). We will consider lessons learned and suggestions for making this critical transition in any organization.