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AOK First quarter 2008 Newsletter
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Welcome to our first newsletter of 2008. You will see from this that we have made a very strong start since launching AOK in October last year.
Particular highlights include:
- Signing contracts to supply AOK to three of the FTSE top ten and a further three Fortune top one hundred companies. By April this year we expect to have over 20 enterprises using our tools.
- Announcing partnerships with: SCC, Symantec and Dimension Data. These organisations have made a huge commitment to working with us by training their internal teams on AOK. Each of these partners is now working with AOK technology at their clients. We expect to announce a further three partnerships over the next month or so.
- Releasing AOK Convert-It and AOK Virtualise-It in February. We already have clients/partners seeing the huge benefit that these products offer.
- Finally I’d like to welcome a new employee to our Senior Management Team. Delvyn Firth is our new Senior Development Manager and is heading up all our testing, quality review, support and release management.
I hope you enjoy this newsletter. Feedback on the format for future issues is welcomed. I will be at our stand at the Windows Server 2008 launch
in Birmingham on 19 March – if you are there, please do come and
say hello.
Nathalie Mancel – International Partner Manager nathalie.mancel@changebase.com
ChangeBASE AOK – an Overview
The last two years has seen a significant change in the technology landscape. Microsoft has released/announced a number of new operating systems including Vista and Windows Server 2008. They are also in the process of adding new service packs for XP and Vista and planning to discontinue support for older operating systems. Virtualisation is gaining significant ground and there are heightened concerns about security, which has led to the release of a raft of new technologies to address this. These technologies are here to deliver one thing – applications to a user. Despite the advances in these technologies one huge problem remains unsolved – getting your applications to run reliably in any one, or a combination of these environments.
Software installation routines are highly complex, often using thousands of settings to get the application loaded. With the range of technologies on offer there are over a hundred thousand tests that need to be made against each installation script/file to make sure an application will load and run effectively. Most packages on sale, or developed internally, have flaws in this area – making ‘Application Compatibility’ one of the biggest challenges in the technology environment.
ChangeBASE AOK is changing this landscape. For the first time a product is available that will identify problems applications have in a particular environment and then FIX up to 99% of these problems automatically. This is a major innovation in technology infrastructure. AOK can reduce the cost of migrating to a new environment by millions of dollars and will deliver a reliable, flexible platform for the future.
Some Hard Facts:
- Approximately 80% plus of applications have problems running on Vista – up to 99% of these can be fixed automatically with AOK.
- Approximately 20% of applications that install/run correctly on XP/Vista have problems running in a Virtualised environment - these issues are easily identified with AOK.
- Organisations pay up to $10,000 per application to get them packaged to run on a target platform. However, in virtually all cases where AOK have run these packaged applications against AOK Discovery, issues have been identified that need to be solved prior to deployment. Using AOK technology can reduce the cost of packaging by up to 90% and get the application 100% AOK!
- It can take three or more weeks to get an application packaged so it is deployed to an organisation’s environment. AOK can reduce this elapsed time by 90% plus.
- Most corporations experience problems each year with applications crashing when they download a major Microsoft patch/update. AOK identifies these problems and helps organisations manage the patch deployment process.
Source – based on ChangeBASE analysing over 50 organisations applications between Feb 2007- Feb 2008. The size of these organisations varied from mid sized companies with hundreds of applications to enterprises with over ten thousand different software packages. |
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| AOK Convert-It: .EXE conversion into MSI in less than 2 minutes! Launched March 2008 |
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AOK Convert-It
- Installed application extraction routine with the ability to drag & drop directory structure
- Automatically produces an MSI that can be then read by AOK to run readiness assessment and fixing
- Ensure that your estate is standardised into one format, Microsoft Windows Installer technology
- Save hours per application compared to traditional method using snapshot
According to Microsoft, around 75% of all applications run by businesses are currently in non MSI formats and therefore cannot be effectively deployed in a properly managed environment.
The AOK Convert-It utility is automated and manages the whole process in seconds. Users point at any folder containing an application and AOK will then import all the files, registry settings, shortcuts and dependencies into the AOK database. A second click and a standard MSI is generated.
This MSI can then be deployed against the AOK toolkit to identify and fix issues with the application.
Nick Martin, Sales Director at SCC commented prior to launch: “The AOK Convert-It tool is a really exciting development that we are currently testing. We hope to be the first to launch it when it goes into live production. This tool is great news, especially for organisations that are currently frustrated, looking at two year timeframes to roll out Vista for example. Now they have a better option because the whole process can be managed in a fraction of the time.”
ChangeBASE AOK are working with a number of clients with this tool and getting stunning results. |
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| AOK Virtualise-It: Get applications running in a Virtual environment Launched Feb 2008 |
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AOK Virtualise-It
- Identify Virtualisation issues such as Non Supported Drivers, Hard Coded References and Non Supported Network Updates
- Assess application Virtualisation readiness in minutes rather than days
- Highlights which applications you can virtualise it and the ones you cannot due to dependency issues
- Prioritise workload and remove the unknown
Virtualisation analysis
Once the application has been loaded into the AOK repository, it can be analysed using the Virtualisation reports that will identify the Virtualisation issues it will encounter, e.g. Non Supported Drivers, Hard Coded References and Non Supported Network Updates. It will identify which issues can be remediated and which cannot.
Middleware dependency analysis
When an application is virtualised it may be dependent on various middleware items. These will need to be deployed along with the application. AOK can be configured to report on all the middleware that is used in an environment and the applications that are to be Virtualised can be checked for any dependencies that need to be loaded into the same bubble.
Inter-application conflict analysis and fixing
Finally, applications that need to interact need to be loaded into the same bubble. This can of course lead to issues where those applications conflict with each other. AOK can be used to identify and automatically remediate inter-application conflicts. |
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| 6 weeks head-start for Old Mutual on Vista migration project thanks to AOK |
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Old Mutual, the largest life assurance business in South Africa chose the AOK product suite as part of its packaging and testing process to ensure a smooth migration of its 15,000 desktops to Microsoft Windows Vista from April 2008.
The decision to rollout Vista will enable the company to exploit the improved security that the operating system offers and allow effective management of remote desktops.
Mark Briston, the Vista project manager for Old Mutual based in South Africa said, “For various reasons, the nine-month testing period had to be shortened significantly and the project needed to find tools which would save time, reduce testing effort and not require extensive training of project staff. We discovered AOK from ChangeBASE and after a day with their consultants, our project staff were able the use the AOK tools confidently and accurately. Overnight, ChangeBASE developed a utility for the conversion of WSE files to MSI format. Within two days three core legacy applications had been tested and remediation started on them. The project team was confident enough after three days to take over the toolset and continue testing on their own.”
Contact nathalie.mancel@changebase.com for more details. |
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| Dimension Data choose AOK to reduce time, risk, effort, as part of their DDPS offering |
As part of The Desktop Deployment Planning Service (DDPS) programme offering, Dimension Data are proud to work in close partnership with the ‘best of breed’ technology partner, ChangeBASE AOK to improve quality delivery, reduce time, risk and effort when deploying applications to Vista.
The DDPS programme aims at supporting desktop migration and ongoing systems management. All advice and deliverables adhere to Microsoft best practice, provided by Microsoft Certified Partner, Dimension Data, and will introduce advanced techniques, processes and tools. Certified consultants will work with you to identify your unique business needs and will help you create a comprehensive deployment plan. This plan, designed to provide a secure and well-managed desktop environment, will help you extend the business value of your Microsoft Office or Windows software upgrade rights.
Please contact naran.mcclung@uk.didata.com for more information |
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| Save up to 15% on your IT infrastructure with SCC and AOK - SCC launches a new application packaging service, branded Software Lifecycle Management.
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Underpinned by the ChangeBASE “Total AOK” toolkit, the suite will allow organisations to accelerate application migration to new Microsoft desktop platforms, maximise investment and afford more flexibility in responding to the demands of the business.
The service provides full application lifecycle management from operating system integration testing (including Vista compatibility testing), standardised and stable packages adhering to Microsoft best practices, proactive assessments of patches and major operating system service packs, on-going updates and changes to packaged applications, all controlled and managed through an on-line portal.
“With an average of four days manual testing for every application, companies could be faced with major overheads when they move to Vista,” said Chris Hall, transformation programme manager for SCC. “We are launching a specific Compatibility Assessment service using the AOK product that will reduce application testing by up to 75 per cent. This will allow a faster move to Vista, delivering savings of up to 15 per cent on desktop management costs.”
SCC and ChangeBASE AOK are offering you the chance to assess your applications for Vista readiness with this special offer: Vista compatibility assessment at £40 for MSI or £190 for non-MSI; for more information, please contact Chris Hall from SCC on Chris.Hall@scc.com |
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| Reduce the time spent on Virtualisation compatibility assessments by 95% with Symantec and AOK |
Symantec has teamed up with ChangeBASE AOK to provide its customers with a best of breed solution with the view to reducing testing costs and times for software virtualisation compatibility. The collaboration enables IT managers to automatically test the managed applications in Altiris Software Virtualization Solution (SVS) which are ready to be virtualised and to report comprehensively on any issues found in just 2 minutes.
To ensure the smooth migration process, customers’ QA (quality assurance) is an essential process. Seventy per cent of the time spent in QA is fixing the same recurring problems found by installing and running the applications, which ChangeBASE’s product AOK will automate. Along with the SVS layering technique, which provides each installed application with a protected environment, there are none of the usual registry or system file clashes that are a constant source of aggravation with traditional Windows setups.
“By using AOK IT Managers can build a case for how using SVS could improve the effectiveness of their next migration and how to budget for it” said Roger Raemaekers, Regional Manager EMEA for Altiris Software Management Solutions. “The obvious benefits of combining these two technologies are there for all to see and customers can now benefit from choosing the software delivery model that works best for them and manage with confidence.”
Contact: nathalie.mancel@changebase.com for more details. |
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| Take the AOK Vista compatibility challenge |
To test the robustness of our AOK offering, ChangeBASE AOK invites you to take up the challenge to test how ready your applications are for Vista. This free evaluation will give you the opportunity to find out what needs to be carried out to get your applications in shape for the migration. A report detailing issues before and after they have been fixed automatically will be given to you at the end of the session.
Contact: nathalie.mancel@changebase.com for more details. |
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ChangeBASE at Microsoft W2008 Server launch event
– 19 March, Birmingham
ChangeBASE at the Vista Squad Group event
– 27 March, London
ChangeBASE KOLT (Key Opinion Leaders Team) forum get together
– early May, London
ChangeBASE at Dimension Data DDPS seminar
– end of June, London
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