BMW Takes a Sharp Turn Toward App Virtualization

[Robert]

BMW going after application virtualization further reinforces the importance of virtualization in todays IT and business infrastructure.


BMW Takes a Sharp Turn Toward App Virtualization

When you're auto giant BMW, with 24 production sites in 13 countries, you're going to have your share of important business applications.

1,000 apps to be more precise. Managing and deploying these applications for employees in 250 global locations had become an expensive, time-consuming grind.

Even though most of the application packaging was outsourced to firms in India, time zone differences, extensive compatibility testing and communication delays between India and BMW's German IT team would add two or three days to the application packaging process.

A New Approach: App Virtualization

BMW needed to put a stop to the manual labor of installing and supporting software on each desktop. It sought a solution that would increase the number of applications that could be packaged so they could be centrally managed, and one that would also reduce app compatibility testing. In addition, the solution had to work on Windows 7, because an upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 was underway.

BMW concluded in Dec. 2008 that it could use application virtualization to solve its group packaging and app compatibility problems -- and partners and IT staff wouldn't even have to be involved in installations (referred to as zero-touch deployment).

As a Microsoft software assurance customer, BMW had access to MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack), a desktop software suite that helps enterprises manage IT environments. MDOP includes App-V, a virtualization tool that changes physical applications into virtual services that can be managed by IT, but are never installed and do not conflict with other applications.

At the end of 2008, BMW evaluated both Microsoft App-V and VMware ThinApp for three months. At the end of this proof-of-concept testing, BMW chose App-V because it is part of the MDOP suite and integrates smoothly with System Center Configuration Manager, Microsoft's software suite for managing large groups of Windows-based computers.

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BMW Takes a Sharp Turn Toward App Virtualization - BusinessWeek