It's Unofficial: App-V Arrives
There's no doubt that the word "virtualization" is a mouthful, so nicknames are invariably going to happen. In fact, the URL for this Website is horribly long; but in the age of URL hoarding, the choices for pithy URLs are shrinking. In the magazine, we call virtual machines "VMs", and internally, the magazine is usually designated "VRM" to save on hand cramps.
Microsoft has gone the same route, shortening, for example, "Virtual Machine Manager 2008" to "VMM 2008" in most instances. And, of course, there's Hyper-V, probably Microsoft's most cool product name ever. "Hyper-V" is just fun to say. Now, Microsoft has shortened another hideously long product name, and given it strong echoes of Hyper-V. Microsoft Application Virtualization will informally be known as "App-V", a name that's sure to stick; I know that's how I'll always refer to it on second reference henceforth.
This entry on the App-V blog (formerly the SoftGrid blog) has more details. So the last vestiges of the Softricity acquisition in 2006 are swept away in the new naming scheme. SoftGrid is out; Microsoft Application Virtualization is reserved for black-tie events; and all the hep cats will be calling it App-V from now on.
Now the three major players have cool application virtualization names: ThinApp (VMware), XenApp (Citrix) and App-V. Let's see if the products live up to their names.
Posted by Keith Ward on 06/17/2008 at 12:48 PM