 |
| Is AOK a product or service? It is a product that automates the majority of the manual work done around application packaging/management. Where can I buy the software? We are setting up a partner channel to supply the product. For more information contact sales@changebase.com Does AOK really get applications to work on VISTA? At the moment many of my business applications do not seem to fully work on VISTA. Yes it does. We have carried out trials with over 40 companies and find that on average 95% plus of applications that have problems working under VISTA can be sorted with AOK. What does AOK offer that Microsoft doesn't? AOK offers a largely automated way of preparing your applications for migration to a new platform. It also ensures that when you have all your applications working together on your new platform that they are protected from security updates causing them to break by informing you of all known application conflicts. Microsoft provides the platform. AOK is the enabling tool to prepare you to move to that platform in the shortest possible time with the least possible risk. Does this mean I should roll out VISTA more quickly? This means that you will be able to roll out VISTA far more quickly should you want to or need to. How easy it to load AOK? Simple. About 5 minutes should do it. Do I need to use all the AOK tools? No. It is possible to use each tool independently of the others. For example AOK Discovery will normally fit in at the early stage of a migration project and give you invaluable information about the compatibility of your application portfolio with the proposed target platform. AOK Fix-It can be used on any packaging project and can even add significant value if adopted part way through. What time savings will I make by using the AOK tools? Obviously, this will depend to some extent upon the processes that you adopt but the savings are considerable both in terms of cost and time. For example a portfolio of 500 applications would normally take 10-15 man months of effort to achieve using AOK discovery this is reduced to less than a day! How much training will I need to have to use the tools? The AOK Discovery and AOK Business As Usual tools require little or no training. They are extremely easy to use and you will be producing reports within minutes. AOK Fix-It is simple to use but the training you require will depend upon your level of expertise as a packaging team. We re able to tailor a one day or two day course to your specific needs if required. Can I automatically migrate from XP to Vista if I use these tools? Obviously when moving from one operating system to another there are many considerations and it is almost certain that you will want to implement and deploy your applications conforming to a set of standards that will differ from that of your previous platform. However, under test conditions we and members of our client base have remediated and successfully deployed whole portfolios of applications after remediating them using AOK Fix-It! What reports and fixes does AOK have with regard to UAC? At present the AOK workbench software analyzes the installation and configuration requirements for compatibility and maintenance issues for Windows XP, Vista and server 2008. Using our existing application dependency analysis infrastructure, the ChangeBase AOK product will deliver a number of run-time checks including file level "version lie" checks and internal or compile security manifests How do you deal with any Win2000->Vista migrations? The ChangeBase AOK Platform Integrity and Best Practices reports and automated fixes are ideally suited for the migration from Windows 2000 platforms (desktop and server environments) as they automatically identify and remediate compatibility issues, security issues and packaging best practice issues in a single tool-set. The AOK tool-set is designed to manage the journey from NT4 systems onward to Windows XP (and SP2, SP3) and on to Vista, Windows server 2003 and 2008 and virtualization platforms such as SoftGrid. The existing collection of Windows XP plugin can easily be expanded to cover the entire Microsoft redistributable list (Merge Modules) which would then deliver an enhanced "clean-up" process for each application package in preparation for deployment to Windows Vista or Server 2008. In addition, the ChangeBase AOK product supports the main formats such as MSI, MST, WSI. It now supports the importing and subsequent reporting of legacy Sysdiff files (INF files) and Wise script packages (WSE files) in the event that a customer does not currently have a complete MSI package portfolio. What sort of testing do you do for middleware technologies (Java, .NET framework, MSI, etc)? A number of our clients and service provider partners have recently requested middleware dependency reports. The ChangeBase AOK client currently supports automated dependency analysis as part of the import process. In part due to the requests of our customers, partners and Microsoft, our first of several middleware dependency reports will be available as a BETA version for Friday of this week, RTM end of November. These reports will be grouped and shipped as part of the ChangeBase AOK Middleware Analysis Report pack, and if you are interested in viewing the results of these types of reports, we would be delighted to arrange an online demonstration. How easy is it to maintain the database? The ChangeBase AOK databases (both local and remote) are automatically created, configured and updated through the AOK client. Creating, repairing, deleting and renaming databases is as simple as "right-clicking" on each database "Tab" presented at the bottom of the main AOK tree-view. The AOK client also supports 2-levels of security enabling administrators to enable or disable functions such as create and delete reports or delete databases. This security functionality is made available on a database by database basis. This ensures that users may have full control over their private or local databases, and administrators are able to maintain control over their central or shared databases. What about new application updates? How are they discovered and added? The AOK product is delivered as .NET client-server application with all reports, fixes and updated delivered as discrete Plugin modules. All of the existing reports are within 20-60 Kb in size and can be easily downloaded from the ChangeBase secure portal or even emailed to users. These plugin files have the AOK file format extension CBP and can be easily "drag'n'drop" on to the AOK client for easy updating. In addition, all database and patch updates are made available in the CBP file format which enables easy database-by-database updating and control. As a technology platform, the AOK product is not intended as a pre-sales tool for later sales and consultancy services but is designed to easily integrate into a customer’s existing processes and platforms and to support our service provider partners in simplifying and reducing the cost of Vista migrations and on-going application management services. What plans does ChangeBASE have for localisation support? We currently have not officially tested AOK running under the localised settings of other regions supported by Vista. However, we have informally tried running it under different localisation settings and it appeared to work. In terms of supporting the same localisations in AOK that are supported under Vista, this is not on our roadmap but would not be seen as an insurmountable issue were it to be seen as of strategic advantage. What is our support model? We will be selling our product through partners who will provide first line global support on AOK to their clients. We have an accreditation process to ensure they will have the appropriate skills in place. We will provide second line support to our partners. What about Citrix support? The ChangeBASE WorkBench tool-set is an essential component of the Citrix packaging and deployment process. Using the WorkBench software, each application is analyzed for compatibility and best practice compliance ensuring that each application installs and functions correctly on the Citrix and Terminal Service platform. In addition, as patches are continuously released by Microsoft, ensuring that Citrix servers are regularly updated raises the issue of change impact assessment on a complex system with hundreds or thousands of users. Using the ChangeBASE Workbench tool-set changes to Citrix delivered applications reduces risk, facilitates security compliance, and delivers faster application deployments. Can we create client specific rule-sets? For simple checks and minor additions to existing Plugins, yes - you can modify and create your own Plugins. We also offer the automated reporting mechanism through creating merge modules - which can be imported. This process creates both the RAG status report and the automated clean-up solution logic as well. For more complex business logic issues, you may need our assistance initially. How would it reduce manual testing? It is estimated to reduce down to at least 50% manual testing. The product can adapt to even the most unique environment by allowing you to create your own rule sets and add to it, increasing the effectiveness of the tool. It saves time by helping with the triage of your applications as it identifies immediately the ones that will have issues. Finally, it will read configuration details of the MSIs (dependency analysis, target platform, MSI tables checks for file, name, location, registry, value) showing what’s missing. How does the Core Application Scan module work? It takes the MSI and converts into a rule format and checks it against all the other selected applications (MSI’s). Customers have found that this reduces the traditional conflict analysis using Wise or InstallShield from 4 hours per applications down to minutes. How does the Complexity Analysis module work? It analyses the files and custom actions of the application and categories them from Green (easy), Amber (medium) to Red (complex). It contains algorithms which you can customize to what you think will be easy, medium and complex applications. We will provide plug-ins; it takes approximately 1 day to create plug-ins. Does the Citrix Virtualization report pack report on issues with packages being installed in a multi-user environment? There are a number of compatibility issues that applications may experience with Citrix including;
Can AOK help me Virtualize my applications? The answer to this is definitely. Whether your intended destination is AppVirt (formerly Softgrid) SVS or another virtualisation target, AOK can assist in testing and readying your applications. When you wish to virtualize an application you will still need to get it working on the target host platform. For this you would run it through the AOK best practice, platform integrity, ICE and potentially Quality Assurance reports and automated fixes. The next step would be to perform the AOK middleware checks to identify any dependant middleware that would need to be deployed in the same bubble as the application. Having made sure that the application will work in the target environment (be that XP or Vista) you need to make sure that it will co-exist harmoniously with the other applications that will be virtualized with it. To ensure this you would use the AOK Core App Scan technology to identify and automatically remediate any inter-application conflicts. Once your application has been prepared for a “clean” deployment it can then be tested using AOK’s Virtualize-IT suite to identify any potential remaining issues that would prevent it from working successfully in a virtualized environment. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
