Managing applications like data that is truly portable can have a profound impact on the way IT operates and the extent to which it facilitates business growth. By virtualizing applications and eliminating the need to ever install them again, SoftGrid delivers order-of-magnitude improvements in critical strategic and tactical IT arenas. Not only does this enable greater agility, more efficient IT management, and end-user productivity gains, it lays the foundation for a utility computing infrastructure that easily evolves with your business.

SoftGrid lays the foundation for a dynamic computing infrastructure. Whether referred to as Utility, On-Demand, Dynamic, Adaptive, Autonomous, Grid, or Software-as-a-Service, it all means the same thing: enabling IT to deliver computing resources instantly based on real-time needs, regardless of whether the client is a server, desktop or laptop. To fully realize this vision, all aspects of the IT infrastructure must be virtualized, from hardware and operating systems to the applications that run on them. SoftGrid helps make this possible.

The SoftGrid platform uniquely enables several strategic IT solutions that are of benefit to both IT administrators and senior level management.

SoftGrid enables IT to manage all Windows applications – including all aspects of their lifecycle – from a single,centralized location. Whether running on desktops, laptops or servers, applications are easily and quickly deployed, updated, supported and terminated with the click of a mouse.

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.

The ability to replicate SoftGrid applications from one site to another is not just beneficial for business continuity and disaster recovery scenarios. It is also a great way to manage applications for users at branch office locations.

The SoftGrid platform supports multiple Windows client environments, including desktops, laptops and Terminal Servers. All of these environments can be served by a single, centrally managed SoftGrid infrastructure. Therefore, users can seamlessly travel from one physical environment to the next throughout the day and have their applications and preferences roam with them.

With SoftGrid, all applications and user preferences can be configured to persist on the network. In addition, SoftGrid ensures that applications cannot make changes to the local operating systems on which they execute. Therefore, SoftGrid allows organizations to move to a hoteling or free-seating model, something that has never been viable before using solely Windows desktop operating systems. With SoftGrid, it is possible for users to share Windows desktops or laptops in a successive fashion.

The proliferation of M&A activity has had a huge impact on IT administration. Often, employees who come from different companies use different versions of the same software. Typically the newly formed company does not have the resources needed to rationalize the different versions. Because these versions cannot run on the same computer at the same time due to conflicts with different versions of the same DLLs, the only solution for server based environments is to build out a farm of servers that provide remote access for these conflicting applications,adding an extra infrastructure and management layer.

SoftGrid plays an integral role in Virtual IT by enabling existing applications – without any new development or rewrite of source code – to be delivered and managed as virtual services. Its SystemGuard technology enables applications to run on computers without the need to install – and without altering the host operating system of the computer the applications are running on. In effect, applications are freed from being tied to specific systems and departments – and can be used on any system, in real-time, on an as-needed basis. This makes it much easier to add, update and support applications and systems. It also directly impacts total cost of ownership and capital savings such as server consolidation.

SoftGrid solves this issue by providing users with administrator equivalent privileges inside each SystemGuard. This provides the applications with the level of access they need without compromising the state of the operating system. SystemGuard protects the OS from any modification and contains all changes within the virtual environment.

Remote IT Solutions offers a full complement of services for the Microsoft SoftGrid Platform: two levels of Support Services, as well as Deployment and Consulting Services.

Microsoft SoftGrid Jump Start: This 3-day onsite workshop will provide you with the basic knowledge necessary to implement a Microsoft SoftGrid environment. During this engagement you will learn how to successfully deploy the environment and what it takes to manage the environment properly.