For some time now we’ve been blogging about the advantages of automated Application Modernization using our unique container-based technology for Microsoft Server environments. However, customers have discovered many advantages of VirtaMove containers that extend beyond application modernization. For years, customers have been taking advantage of VirtaMove containers to solve a range of business challenges.
1. Isolate applications
In many industries, like Insurance, Healthcare or Pharmaceuticals and even in Banking, customers must verify compliance of business applications to rigorous, auditable standards (for example HIPAA is a compliance standard in regulated Healthcare-related businesses). Once an application is certified, making changes requires a time consuming and expensive recertification process. To avoid recertification, customers containerize legacy applications and run them in isolation on newer OS and server environments. Containerization allows customers to run several close variations of applications, each dependent on unique but similar software stacks on the same server. The isolation provided by containerization avoids conflicts between different stacks (for example, database and driver variations) and eliminates the need to manage multiple servers and license multiple OS platforms for each application.
2. Create exact application images for development
Software development is a demanding business. Under pressure to meet deadlines, software developers may well forget about the detailed installation scripts and configuration data required to create identical cloud or test copies of an application. However, if applications are containerized, it’s easy to create exact images on newer OSs such as Windows Server 2008 R2 or WS2012 or WS2016. This eliminates the need to worry about recreating an installation process or scripts. Additionally, applications that are containerized with VirtaMove on WS2008 can run seamlessly on WS2012 or WS2016.
Containerization accelerates the development and testing of new software by making it easy to create identical copies of the software on both datacentre and cloud servers. It lets the developer focus on building software that solves business problems rather than worrying about the details of configuration.
3. Store master copies of applications for recovery purposes
Once applications are containerized using VirtaMove, backup copies of the containerized applications can be stored for recovery or distribution purposes. The master copy of an application stored in a container can be used to create a fresh, decluttered installation of an application, free of malware or other exposures.
Isolate, replicate, and recover or distribute. These are just three of the many benefits and uses of VirtaMove containers, which customers rely on every day. To learn more about other use cases or how VirtaMove can help accelerate and modernize your Windows Server infrastructure, please call or e-mail us.