Have a look at Brian Madden's blog posting, "If Symantec buys a client hypervisor, they could dominate the desktop virtualization market in two years" as it lends itself to what we are doing with the on-the-fly virtualization™ methodology. We agree with his philosophy that the solution to virtualize the other 480 million desktops should not be "hard and game changing" but rather a non-disruptive approach, as noted "without even noticing it."

Desktop virtualization is an evolving technology that has different approaches. Here we compare two methods that focus only on the tactical operation of virtualizing applications and desktops.

Pre-packaging approach
Most application and desktop virtualization solutions require special upfront handling and processes that involve several steps. First, a package creation studio program takes a snapshot of a clean PC, and then the virtualization application is installed. After the installation is completed, another snapshot is taken. The studio compiles a virtualized installation package, and all read/writes are separated from the OS by placing files into virtual bubble — with some vendors this includes a runtime OS environment and registry. This virtualized application package then works separately from the OS and other applications and, if supported, can be streamed from the server. Application packages will need to be re-processed for each new application update and then redeployed.

With this method, to virtualize the majority of a company's desktops, existing applications need to be reinstalled on all desktops/laptops. Not every application is eligible to be virtualized, such as service based applications and those that include drivers, so the PC becomes an unfamiliar mix of virtual and non-virtual applications residing on the desktop. This hybrid environment doesn't always allow for the virtualized applications to interrelate with the non-virtualized applications and can create support issues for IT.

On-the-fly virtualization™
We came up with a method where encapsulation happens on-the-fly and does not require application pre-packaging nor does it change the infrastructure or the desktop usage/environment. We believe this is a much better application and desktop virtualization solution for both the IT administrator and end user. This process works with existing and new deployments, which eliminates the need to clean the PC, install the virtualization layer, prepackage applications and then redeploy to the desktop. Virtualization is in effect immediately, no reboot required. Without any extra steps, our method shares the encapsulated content among different encapsulated applications, allowing applications to interact normally. This flash demo walks you through basic concepts of our method of virtualization.