Applications

• Overcome app delivery and management challenges• Build a winning

application strategy

Charles BarrettMark EwertBen Goodman

Learnto:

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Applications

By Charles Barrett, Mark Ewert

and Ben Goodman

Applications For Dummies®

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ England

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Table of ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

About This Book ...................................................................................1Foolish Assumptions ...........................................................................2How This Book is Organized ..............................................................2Icons Used in This Book .....................................................................3Where to Go from Here .......................................................................3

Chapter 1: It’s All About the Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Understanding Apps ............................................................................5Giving the People What They Want .................................................6Vive La (Continuous) Revolution .....................................................6Working Out What You Need .............................................................8

Chapter 2: A Brief History of Digital Computing and Computer Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The First Steps ......................................................................................9Moving On: The First Software ........................................................10Computers Mean Business ..............................................................10

The IBM 650 .............................................................................11Technology triumphant: transistors

and integrated circuits ......................................................12Mind your language ...............................................................13Innovation, innovation, innovation ....................................13

The 70s: A DIY Decade ......................................................................14Finding the key ........................................................................14Developing new languages and systems ...........................15

The 80s: Up Close and Personal .....................................................16Devices and desires ...............................................................16The rise of the gamer .............................................................17Scaling down the mainframe ................................................17Programmers proliferate ......................................................17Share and share alike: The compatibility problem .........18It’s PC gone mad . . . ...............................................................19

The 90s: PC Paradise .........................................................................19Communication and connectivity ......................................19

The Wonder of the Web ....................................................................20Greeting the New Millennium ..........................................................22

Getting mobile .........................................................................22Embracing the cloud ..............................................................23

Applications For Dummies iv

Chapter 3: Managing the Application Lifecycle: Selection to Packaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Determining the App You Need ......................................................25Determining Whether to Build or Buy ...........................................26

Buying off-the-shelf: Packaged software ............................27Refining the job: Customized software ..............................28You can go your own way: The fully-customized route ...29

It Takes Apps to Build Apps: Supporting Developers ................31

Chapter 4: The Application Lifecycle: Deployment to Decommissioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Deploying Applications .....................................................................35Installing apps manually .......................................................35Using application deployment systems ............................36Deploying through the OS ....................................................36Using terminal servers ..........................................................36SaaS at your service ...............................................................37

Managing Applications .....................................................................37Monitoring Applications ...................................................................38Securing Applications .......................................................................39

Making identity secure ..........................................................39Controlling access ..................................................................39Introducing role-based access control ..............................40Ensuring effective encryption ..............................................40

Decommissioning Applications ......................................................40

Chapter 5: Applications of the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43Innovation, Innovation, Innovation ................................................43

HTML5 .......................................................................................45Native mobile applications ...................................................46Hybrid mobile applications ..................................................46Cloud/SaaS ...............................................................................46Enterprise mobility management (EMM) .........................47DevOps .....................................................................................47

Modern and Legacy Living Side by Side .......................................48Application virtualization .....................................................48The Internet of Things (IoT) .................................................49

2020 Vision (Star Gazing) ..................................................................49Interactions and Considerations ....................................................51

Haptic Technology .................................................................51Gesture Recognition ..............................................................51Augmented Reality (AR) .......................................................51

Context and Location Awareness ...................................................52Geofencing ...............................................................................53Host Posture Checking ..........................................................53Device Switching .....................................................................53

Table of Contents v

Chapter 6: Ten Take-away Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55Buying or Building .............................................................................55SaaS and The Cloud ...........................................................................55Managing with Confidence ...............................................................56Dealing with Development ...............................................................56The Evolution of the Desktop ..........................................................56Managing the Mobile Environment ................................................56Getting to Grips with EMM ...............................................................57Blending Past and Present ...............................................................57The Rise of the Machines .................................................................57Dusting Off Your Crystal Ball ...........................................................57

Appendix: Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Applications For Dummies vi

Introduction

W elcome to Applications For Dummies, your short and sweet guide to understanding the ins and outs of

application delivery and management without having to sit in a darkened room for a week.

Remember the days when employees all had PC terminals, with a suite of software which was manually loaded by a guy from IT? Well, they’re pretty much over.

Now, employees and contractors alike are using all manner of new devices, requiring a seemingly endless conveyor belt of new applications. And these bring with them a similarly endless stream of challenges – security, development standards, obsolescence management – you name it.

Applications are here to stay but we’re here to help. The tips and advice in this book aren’t only about helping you to get off on the right foot when it comes to supporting applications: They’ll also help you improve end-user satisfaction and productivity. And, more importantly, they ’ll enable you to simplify the day-to-day management of end users, enhance security, and contain costs in the process.

About This BookThis book aims to provide you with information to tackle and support application initiatives. It’s full of useful information to help you understand the current application environment, and how we all got here. It also brims with tips to help you plan and implement an application strategy based on your requirements. This guide can help you consider your technology options and ensure that you cover all of your bases before you get started.

Applications For Dummies 2

Foolish AssumptionsIn writing this book, we made some assumptions about you:

✓ You work in IT or within an IT organization.

✓ You want to understand how to tackle application management and delivery.

✓ You’re looking for information, tips and tricks about how to get started.

How This Book is OrganizedApplications For Dummies is divided into six small but perfectly formed chapters:

✓ chapter 1: it’s all about the apps. This chapter sets the scene for the whole book, giving a brief run-down of apps and application delivery, and the best approaches to getting this right.

✓ chapter 2: a brief history of Digital computing and computer applications. The story of how we got here: A run-through of the history of computing and apps.

✓ chapter 3: applications: to buy or to build. This chapter gets down to business and gives you the skinny on the crucial choices you need to make when developing your own software and buying it. It also gives you tips on supporting in-house development.

✓ chapter 4: the application Lifecycle: Deployment through to Decommissioning. This chapter leads you through all of the things you need to think about when it comes to managing apps — from rolling them out to giving them a dignified send-off.

✓ chapter 5: applications of the future. This chapter takes you on a whirlwind tour of where we think apps will be in the next few years. It’s a crazy place, and you need to be ready for it.

✓ chapter 6: ten take-away points. Here we give you ten key points to remember, even if you forget everything else.

Introduction 3

Icons Used in This BookWe highlight crucial text for you with the following icons:

The knotted string highlights important information to bear in mind.

Home in on the target for tips to enable you to support the new world of apps.

Watch out for these pitfalls.

Where to Go from HereAs with all For Dummies books, you can either read this guide from cover to cover or flick straight to the section that interests you. Whether you read it in small doses using the section headings or all in one session, you’ll find plenty of information to get you on your way to supporting applications.

Applications For Dummies 4

Chapter 1

It’s All About the AppsIn This Chapter▶ Grasping the importance of apps

▶ Understanding what end users want in an app

▶ Coming to terms with the permanent revolution in software

▶ Laying out what you need to know to deliver great apps

T here isn’t an area of IT that is changing as fast as the end-user landscape, whether in terms of the devices, the

way we access applications, the locations from which we access applications or the volume of applications entering the business.

Understanding AppsApps (or applications, to be precise) have been a nuisance for IT since the dawn of computing, and are split between client and server applications. This book focuses on the end-user type of applications (applications installed or launched on a user’s desktop/mobile device): It covers how they have evolved, where they are heading (we do a bit of star gazing) and what you should be focusing on to ensure that your busi-ness can move forward, both handling modern applications as well as supporting the legacy applications that your organiza-tion has grown up on.

Applications are some of the most expensive parts of any IT organization, and they have a profound impact on the perfor-mance of the business, either negatively or positively, depend-ing on the way in which they have been implemented. I only wish my children would heed my advice of only subscribing to the applications they need access to when I look at their tablet computers, which are a rainbow of applications. They carry a

Applications For Dummies 6myriad of applications, and I have no idea how many of them got on there. And it is this simplified way of installing appli-cations that typifies what end users have come to expect in recent years . . .

Giving the People What They Want

Enterprise consumers of applications want applications that are simple to access, simple to install and intuitive to use. They want the Facebook concept: Applications which users don’t need a manual to install but simply download, log onto and enjoy. Sadly the same can’t be said for applications that reside within organizations. ‘Why?’, I hear you ask.

Well, I answer, one of the primary reasons for this is that IT is showing its age. Many enterprises are working in an age of social, mobile and cloud computing with applications that were built in a previous generation, by a previous generation of developers, using the most appropriate technology at that time. Core business applications have frequently been built from the ground up, leveraging an internal team of developers. They are both costly to implement and manage, and impor-tantly, are typically shackled to the technology available at the time. This is opposed to the notion of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software.

Approximately 60 per cent of IT budget is spent on maintaining existing applications, leaving little with which to innovate and move forward.

Vive La (Continuous) Revolution

The IT industry has undergone significant transitions roughly each decade, and you can boil those transitions down as follows:

✓mainframe computers: The 1960s and 1970s.

✓ pcs and the first apps: The 1980s.

✓ client Server: The mid-1980s.

Chapter 1: It’s All About the Apps 7 ✓ the internet: From the mid-1990s.

✓ mobile computing: From the early 2000s.

✓ Software as a Service (SaaS): From 2010 onwards.

Through all this, two factors have remained constant, however:

✓ The volume of applications increases.

✓ End users demand better experiences.

If you’re interested in understanding more about the applica-tion landscape – where they have come from and the chal-lenges you may face in any application delivery/modernization project you are embarking upon – then Chapter 2 is the place for you!

The complexity of applications – their architectures and their criticality across the business – is what makes them so challenging.

In addition to some of the challenges applications inherently pose, several industry trends have had significant effects on applications and their delivery across the enterprise. These are:

✓ The proliferation of end-user devices, which is estimated to grow to 9 individual devices owned per end user by 2020.

✓ The advent of HTML5 programming languages.

✓ The rise of mobile computing.

✓ The support of BYOD/Consumerization of IT.

✓ The emergence of Cloud computing.

✓ The drive for data collaboration.

At the heart of this landscape lies a set of people, processes and technologies that need to pull together to deliver applica-tions in an aggregated manner (that is, from multiple sources) into a simple interface accessible across any device, but governed by the business. We’ve heard this described as con-trolled freedom.

Applications For Dummies 8

Working Out What You NeedApplication delivery and management is a critical feature of any enterprise landscape and as organizations start to con-sume mobile, SaaS, and web apps along with traditional client server applications, identity management becomes as critical as the delivery mechanism.

In thinking about your application strategy you need to con-sider at a basic level the high-level segments in the following list, and guess what? This book covers them all:

✓ the history and future of applications: Where we’ve come from, and where we’re going.

✓ the presentation of those applications: How you’re going to deliver all this stuff.

✓ application protocols: How you’re going access what you need.

✓ Security management: How you’re going to make the applications safe and secure to use, and keep them in line.

✓ your end users: Who gets applications, how they get them and why.

✓ access: How you’re going to access your applications from various locations and adhere to governance.

✓ Virtualization: Whether you’re going to virtualize your applications, how you’re going to do it, and which apps you’re going to do it to.

✓ Licensing: Each delivery method has an impact on licens-ing options, and those options lead to cost. Work out the right blend of delivery methods to support your cost model.

That’s a lot to consider, and I think you will agree (if you are like me) that you didn’t get into IT to patch servers or desk-tops. You got into IT to make a digital difference and to sim-plify end-user experience. If so, I also hope you will agree that there hasn’t been a more exciting or complicated time to be in the world of end-user technology.

We hope you enjoy your read.

Chapter 2

A Brief History of Digital Computing and Computer

ApplicationsIn This Chapter▶ Getting an overview of the history of apps

▶ Understanding the developing requirements of business users

▶ Getting to grips with the sheer scale of change in applications

T he history of digital computing and computer applications is a testament to human ingenuity and innovation. The

first digital computing devices were purpose-built. Limited in power and capabilities, these computers were built to simplify a critical task.

This chapter walks you through some of the key developments in the history of computing.

The First StepsIn late 1943, British engineers at Bletchley Park built the Colossus. Engineered to aid British military cryptographers in deciphering encrypted messages during World War Two, the Colossus is known as the world’s first programmable digital computer, and was one of the key technological advances that lead to the end of World War Two. But since Colossus was purpose-built for war time cryptography, it had no use after World War Two and was retired less than three years after it was created.

Applications For Dummies 10Meanwhile, also in 1943, the United States began to construct the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC). Completed in 1945, ENIAC was physically huge: weighing over 30 tons, it was able to perform 5,000 addition or subtraction calculations per second, a thousand times faster than any other machine at the time. ENIAC was designed to calculate artillery trajectories for the United States Army, and like the Colossus, it far out-performed the calculating capacity of human mathematicians.

These early computers were all hardware. Modifying one of these systems to do something different required that hard-ware be re-engineered, so most of these early computers had only brief lifespans, despite performing incredibly important tasks during their time.

Moving On: The First SoftwareThe next major advance in computing came in 1948, when a team at the University of Manchester in England built the “Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine”. Nicknamed Baby, this computer and its successor the Manchester Mark I, were the first practical application of “stored-program” computing. Prior to stored-program computers, program-ming a computer meant changing the position of hundreds of switches (if you were lucky). In most cases it meant physically re-wiring or even re-designing the system. Stored-program computers changed everything. By being capable of receiv-ing a set of instructions known as a program, stored-program computers could be modified to perform new tasks without rebuilding the hardware. These early programs were typically stored on paper tape or punch cards which could be fed into the computer whenever the program needed to be run. This enabled computers to more rapidly handle more useful and diverse tasks, simply by feeding them different programs. Because they enabled computers to perform new tasks with-out changing the hardware, computer programs became known as software.

Computers Mean BusinessAlthough software enabled the Mark I and similar systems of this era like the EDVAC and EDSAC to more easily perform

Chapter 2: A Brief History of Digital Computing and Computer Applications 11different tasks, these computers were still very limited in their capabilities. Being equally enormous in size and cost to operate, most were only accessible to governments and uni-versities. But by the early 1950s, computers had found their way outside government and academia. One early corpora-tion to use them was Dutch Shell Labs in Amsterdam. Shell used a version of the Manchester Mark I manufactured by the UK firm Ferranti to support oil refining research. In 1952 CBS Broadcasting pioneered another application of computing technology when it used a UNIVAC I built by the Remington Rand Corporation to successfully predict the outcome of the 1952 Presidential election. Using just a 1 per cent sample of the voting public the UNIVAC I correctly predicted a landslide win for Dwight Eisenhower while political experts had predicted a win for Adlai Stevenson. Known as the first mass produced computer, Remington Rand sold 46 of the UNIVAC I despite a price tag of more than a million US dollars at the time.

Another computer of the early 1950s that advanced the appli-cation of computing technology was the LEO, which was designed for business. The first use of the LEO in 1951 was to support the operation of UK bakeries. Each bakery would phone in its orders for the day which would be entered into LEO using paper tape or punch cards. LEO then used this data to calculate required ingredients, develop baking and deliv-ery schedules and even invoice customers. By the end of the 1950s, several organizations were using LEOs, including the Ford Corporation UK for their payroll systems, and the UK Meteorological Office which used a LEO for weather analysis.

The IBM 650In 1954 the IBM Corporation brought the computer within reach of more organizations with the release of the IBM 650. Still weighing thousands of pounds but much smaller in size than its predecessors, the 650 could be purchased for $500,000 US dollars, or leased from IBM for $3,500 per month. This made it practical for more organizations to start using comput-ers, and the relative ease of programming software for the IBM 650 lead to it being used to support a wide variety of applica-tions. When the last 650 was built in 1962, IBM had sold nearly 2,000 of them.

While computers like the LEO, UNIVAC I and IBM 650 made computing technology more accessible, they were still out of

Applications For Dummies 12reach of all but the most deep-pocketed organizations. And their complexity, large size, and exotic power and cooling requirements limited their practical usage even within organi-zations fortunate enough to own one. Applications for these computers were custom developed and tied to the system on which they were programmed. Innovations we take for granted today like “off-the-shelf” software and software portability were still decades away. These computers were also far from user friendly. Programs were input into these computers using media such as punch cards or paper tape. Any problems such as a small tear in a tape or punch cards out of order and the application could not be loaded.

But these historic computers and their lesser-known cousins helped advance computing technology. As computers dem-onstrated they could perform critical tasks, more and more uses were envisioned for them. Government and university researchers along with pioneering corporations like IBM and Remington Rand rapidly advanced computing technology from the mid-fifties through the sixties.

Technology triumphant: transistors and integrated circuits

The big innovations during this period began with the transis-tor. In 1955 the transistor started to replace the vacuum tubes that had provided the computing power for earlier machines. A fraction of the cost and size of vacuum tubes, requiring much less power and giving off far less heat, transistors ena-bled building smaller and smaller computers at lower costs without reducing performance. Transistors actually enabled computer processing power to steadily increase through the sixties as engineers could harness thousands of them to build systems that would have been simply impractical to build with enormous and expensive vacuum tubes.

Innovations in transistors led to the development of the integrated circuit in 1959. Combining advances in the minia-turization of transistors with the advent of semi-conductors, integrated circuits took thousands of tiny transistors and connected them together without wires using a conductive material. Because wires were no longer needed, smaller and smaller transistors could be created. Early integrated circuits used germanium, but silicon was soon found to be a superior

Chapter 2: A Brief History of Digital Computing and Computer Applications 13conductive material. And with silicon being an inexpensive and abundantly available resource, integrated circuits contin-ued the rapid reduction in size and expense of computing tech-nology, while enabling design of ever more powerful machines.

Mind your languageComputer programming languages also evolved during this period. Programming languages make it much easier to create software applications that enable computers to perform useful tasks. Before the advent of programming languages, computers had to be programmed using obscure machine code that was not easily understandable by anyone except those with inti-mate knowledge of the inner workings of each machine. In the mid-1950s IBM created FORTRAN. One of the first high-level programming languages, FORTRAN enabled computer pro-gramming using words. This was much easier to comprehend than the obscure number and letter combinations of machine code.

Another important programming language created during this time was COBOL. Designed specifically to support the devel-opment of business applications, COBOL is an acronym for COmmon Business Oriented Language. Remarkably COBOL, and applications developed in COBOL, are still in use today over fifty years after the programming language was created.

Innovation, innovation, innovationBy the end of the sixties, innovations like transistors, inte-grated circuits and high-level programming languages had led to computers that were more powerful than ever, but at a frac-tion of the size and cost of those from a decade before. These advances not only brought computing within the reach of more organizations, they became practical for more and more applications. While they had once taken up several rooms, computers by the early 1970s had shrunk from massive to mini to micro.

This was enabled by the development of the first microproces-sor by the Intel Corporation in 1971. Known as the Intel 4004, the microprocessor shrunk the computer’s core processing components into a single general purpose chip. It was the dawn of a new era of human productivity and the seeds of today’s vast computing landscape had been planted.

Applications For Dummies 14

The 70s: A DIY DecadeThe 1970s were an incredibly innovative period in the history of computing. Just a few years after development of the first microprocessor, computing entered the realm of hobbyists. The July 1974 issue of Radio Electronics magazine announced the Mark-8 microcomputer, a build-it-yourself kit based on the 8008, the next generation of Intel’s microprocessor. Readers could send away for the schematics and required parts list and for the first time build a basic computer themselves. Soon the Mark-8 was followed by another historic kit: The Altair 8800. Announced in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics magazine, the Altair 8800 was based on the more powerful Intel 8080 processor. Much less expensive than other kits, the Altair 8800 fueled a growing community of computer hardware hackers. With no monitor, mouse or keyboard, users toggled switches on the front of the case to input programs and data. Although far from the user-friendly computers we have today, the Altair 8800 enabled anyone interested to get started in computing. Famously, the Microsoft Corporation was born after the success of the BASIC programming language pro-grammed for the Altair 8880 by Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

Finding the keyIn April 1975, only a few months after the debut of the Altair, the Olivetti Corporation previewed its P6060 computer. In just three months, toggle switches for inputting programs had been replaced by a keyboard. The P6060 also featured a thermal printer, floppy disk drive and orange plasma display. It could also be programmed using the BASIC programming language. Computing was becoming personal.

IBM soon announced a similar computer, as did many other pioneering computer companies like Commodore, Apple and Atari. The success of the Apple I, released first in 1976 as a build-it-yourself kit, launched the Apple Corporation. It led to the development of one of the most successful early personal computers: the Apple II. The Apple II featured a full-sized key-board, green screen monitor and floppy disk drive.

Similar systems at the time included the Commodore PET and the Atari 400 and 800. Radio Shack, headquarters for

Chapter 2: A Brief History of Digital Computing and Computer Applications 15electronics hobbyists, also entered the market with the TRS 80. All of these machines were marketed not just for business, but also for education and home use. By the start of the 1980s, computers had escaped the large windowless rooms of govern-ments and universities and were steadily being incorporated into everyday life.

Although advances in microprocessors enabled the rise of per-sonal computing, this phenomenon would not have been suc-cessful without equivalent innovations in software. The early hobbyists built computers just for the sake of experimenting with computing. Success was simply getting the system to run at all. But soon, as more reliable and functional computing hardware became available, software was required to get the computer to do useful things.

Developing new languages and systems

Two early types of programs were essential for the advance-ment of software itself, as both served to make computing easier and more accessible. The first was the software pro-gramming language. It may be counterintuitive to think of pro-gramming languages as applications themselves, but the first computers only understood machine code, which resembled nothing like a language understandable by humans. Computer programming languages, like FORTRAN and COBOL from the 1960s followed by BASIC, C and PASCAL in the 1970s, were soft-ware applications that made it much easier to program com-puters using language more understandable by humans.

Another essential early software application was the operat-ing system. Simply put, an operating system is software that makes it easier to operate a computer. Operating systems were developed to enable the use of early mainframe computers, and by the 1970s mainframes like the IBM/370 were shipping with four different operating system options, including a ver-sion of DOS (Disk Operating System). DOS eventually evolved to become the standard operating system for PCs by the mid-1980s. Another important operating system that emerged in the 1970s was UNIX. First created to make it easier to develop applications for early mainframes, more and more features were added to UNIX until it became an application used to operate the mainframe itself. Since the 1970s UNIX has evolved

Applications For Dummies 16to power millions of computing devices from the data center to the wristwatch. It is also the ancestor of many of the operat-ing systems we use today including Linux, OS X and Android.

The 80s: Up Close and PersonalThe innovations of operating systems, programming languages and microcomputers created a renaissance for computing and computer software in the 1980s. Mainframes had evolved into more powerful systems and spawned a middle tier of com-puting power known as minicomputers, or midrange. Historic midrange systems include Digital Equipment Corporation’s PDP line, the Hewlett Packard HP3000 and IBM’s System/32. Together mainframes and midrange systems ran the majority of applications used by governments, universities and busi-nesses. Terminals began to appear on more and more workers’ desks. These very basic devices enabled users to use applica-tions running on mainframe and midrange systems.

Soon word processing software accessed through terminals began to replace typewriters. Accounting applications running on mainframe and midrange systems helped more organiza-tions manage their finances, and terminals began appearing in airports for airline ticketing applications. But mainframe and midrange computers had their drawbacks. They were expen-sive and only practical for providing multiple users access to common applications and data.

Although the mainframe and midrange systems of the late 1970s and early 1980s had exponentially more power than their predecessors, they still had limited resources. This meant that organizations had to be selective about which applications they chose to run and users were limited to run-ning only these programs. Users were also out of luck if the systems were down. Terminals could only provide access to mainframe and midrange systems: they could not run applica-tions themselves.

Devices and desiresMeanwhile, the early 1980s saw an explosion in the develop-ment of new personal computing devices. The success of the Apple II and Commodore PET led to the Apple II plus and

Chapter 2: A Brief History of Digital Computing and Computer Applications 17Commodore 64. Texas Instruments entered the market with the TI 99/4A, as did Coleco with the Adam and Timex Sinclair with the Z80 series. Even IBM, the mainframe market leader, got into the game with the IBM Personal Computer in 1981. All of these early systems had similar capabilities. They could use televisions or monitors for displays. They supported printing, floppy disks for loading programs and storing data, and even early modems for communicating with other computers over telephone lines. By 1984 there were more than 600,000 home computers in the United States. Soon what began to separate these machines was not so much the hardware, as the avail-ability of software.

The rise of the gamerThese early personal computing devices provided a ravenous market for new applications. Video games helped sell many systems, following the success of early home video game con-soles like the Atari 2600. Educational computing took off with both Apple and Radio Shack marketing systems and software specifically for schools. New applications soon enabled people to use home computers to write letters, print greeting cards, catalog their baseball card collection, and track their personal finances.

Scaling down the mainframePeople also started to use these computers for business. Frustrated with the limited capabilities and inflexibility of mainframes and terminals, some office workers started bring-ing home computers into the office. Soon these home comput-ers often became standard office equipment. These systems also brought computing to many small businesses and organi-zations for the first time, as access to mainframe and midrange systems had simply been unaffordable.

Programmers proliferateAll of these use cases accelerated the development of new software applications. The availability of affordable computers also enabled more and more people to learn how to program, providing the developers were required to meet the demand for new software. The 1980s saw the founding of Adobe,

Applications For Dummies 18Electronic Arts, Aldus, Brøderbund and dozens of other new software companies. Ashton Tate found early success with dBase, its database management system. Likewise IBM empow-ered accountants and financial planners with its Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software, and the WordPerfect word processor freed humanity from the misery of typewriters.

Share and share alike: The compatibility problem

By the end of the 1980s it was becoming possible to do nearly anything with a computer, but not all of the early systems sur-vived the decade. As organizations started being able to do more and more with computers they began to recognize the need for compatibility. It was not possible to take a disk out of a Commodore 64 for example, and read it on an IBM PC. So sharing data between different systems was very difficult. The burden of having different brands of computers running differ-ent software soon began to diminish their benefits.

When it rushed its first Personal Computer to market, IBM unwittingly made two important decisions that solved this problem, leading to the rise of the PC Compatible computer.

The first was the decision to use mostly off-the-shelf compo-nents that IBM did not invent. The second was to license DOS from Microsoft for the PC operating system instead of develop-ing its own. Not designing all of the system components was a big departure for the mainframe giant. However, had it waited to do things the old IBM way it is doubtful that IBM could have entered the PC market in time. But while both of these deci-sions enabled IBM to get its PC to market quickly, they also allowed other companies to manufacture compatible systems known as clones. Because IBM did not own most of the com-ponents or the operating system, it could not prevent pioneer-ing clone manufacturers like Compaq from building machines themselves, using the same parts and also licensing DOS from Microsoft. Since the parts and operating system were the same, software written for the IBM PC also ran on these new clone PCs and they were soon referred to as PC Compatible. This meant that people could now buy either a PC made by IBM, or a PC Compatible from a clone vendor and not have to worry about problems sharing data or applications.

Chapter 2: A Brief History of Digital Computing and Computer Applications 19

It’s PC gone mad . . .As more and more people started to prefer machines that were PC Compatible, much of the innovation and develop-ment of new hardware and software moved to the PC. This helped accelerate the demise of most competing systems like those from Commodore, Atari and Radio Shack. Apple was one of the few exceptions, having followed its Apple II series with the wildly successful Macintosh line of computers. The Macintosh was far ahead of its time with a graphical user inter-face, mouse, sound processor and other pioneering features. However its lack of PC compatibility confined its success to desktop publishing, education, and the arts.

The 90s: PC ParadiseThe early 1990s continued to see PC compatibles with Microsoft DOS dominate the personal computer market. But by the mid-80s, IBM itself was no longer the leading manufac-turer of IBM compatible PCs. Dozens of other companies had started selling PC compatibles including Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Dell and Toshiba. Microsoft DOS had also been followed by Microsoft Windows, a graphical user interface for the PC. Taking a cue from Apple’s success with the Macintosh, Microsoft Windows enabled users to control PCs with a mouse, clicking on pictures known as icons to run applications rather than having to type arcane DOS commands. Software developers were able to harness the power and ease-of-use of the graphical user interface, creating richer PC applications. And as long as users had a PC compatible running Microsoft Windows they could all run the same applications, which made it easier to collaborate and share data. Within many cor-porations the need for PC compatibility shifted to a need for connectivity.

Communication and connectivityAlthough PCs had invaded the office they did not displace mainframe or midrange systems, which still ran most mis-sion critical applications. This caused many employees to have both PCs and terminals crowding their desks. Data also needed to be transferred between the mainframe and PCs,

Applications For Dummies 20and between individual PCs themselves. These factors helped advance the development of computer networking. Computer networks enable multiple interconnected computers to com-municate using a common language, known as a protocol. The early 1990s saw corporations running wire in their buildings to connect computers using Ethernet and Token Ring networks. PCs were now able to communicate with each other, speaking protocols like TCP/IP, which was to become the standard for network communication. Users were now able to share data between PCs and access each other’s devices such as printers. This also enabled PCs to communicate with mainframe and midrange systems, providing the connectivity required to sup-port a new type of applications known as Client-Server.

Before Client-Server, applications ran either on mainframe and midrange systems, or on PCs. With PCs fast replacing dumb terminals, there was now computing power in the client devices used to connect to the mainframe, not just in the mainframe and midrange systems themselves. This enabled software developers to write applications that took advantage of the resources available on both the client and the main-frame/midrange systems which became known as servers. Applications running on PCs were now able to access data stored in server-based databases. Simple terminal-based inter-faces were replaced with rich graphical applications harness-ing the power of the PC and offloading work from expensive servers.

The Wonder of the WebAdvances in computer networking, client-server computing and operating systems with graphical user interfaces also provided the parts required for one of the most revolutionary technological advances in human history: The World Wide Web. Since the 1960s researchers at governments and universi-ties had been connecting their mainframe and midrange com-puters together over phone networks to enable communica-tion and data sharing.

Throughout the 1970s and 80s more and more universities and corporations connected to this growing, global network which by the late 80s had become commonly known as The Internet. One of the first applications to harness this connectivity was electronic mail. Other applications that followed were FTP

Chapter 2: A Brief History of Digital Computing and Computer Applications 21which enabled transferring files between computers, telnet which was used to access other computers over the network, and gopher, an application for searching and accessing data and documents stored on other computers. But these early Internet applications were text-based and cumbersome to use due to their origin on mainframe and midrange systems.

In the early 1990s, a British scientist named Tim Berners-Lee harnessed the power of the graphical user interface and a new network communications protocol he dubbed the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to enable easy connectivity to information and documents stored on other computers using graphical links. This made it much easier to aggregate and organize data stored on lots of different computers. These links between information and computers became known as webs and these webs were organized using pages of links known as webpages, grouped together into websites. To access these websites, users simply needed a new application that spoke HTTP called a web browser running on an operating system with a graphical user interface. As more and more com-puters all over the world began to host webpages using new applications known as web servers, the entire system came to be known as the World Wide Web. Any user with a computer connected to the Internet using a client web browser could now easily access information stored on web-servers all over the world.

One of the first killer applications for the World Wide Web was the search engine. Pioneered by companies like Yahoo, Lycos and AltaVista in the mid-90s and followed by Google in 1998, search engines actively indexed the Web, making it easy for users to search and find web-based information. During the late 1990s and early 2000s the number of active users on the Internet exploded from just 16 million in 1995 to over 500 mil-lion by 2001. Software developers began using new program-ming languages designed for the web to create more advanced applications. These new languages like Java, Javascript and Flash enabled developers to advance the web from basic infor-mation organization and retrieval to supporting sophisticated online applications.

This new breed of client-server application leveraged the global connectivity and ease-of-use of the web. Soon people were doing their banking, ordering goods and services and communicating with friends and family using these web appli-cations. Traditional PC applications started to integrate with

Applications For Dummies 22the Internet and World Wide Web too, expanding the capabil-ity of client applications by leveraging the power of the global network.

Greeting the New MillenniumThroughout the 2000s, computers became ever more power-ful and communication networks got faster and faster. New technological innovations like virtualization made it possible to more efficiently harness the power of new computing hard-ware by enabling single servers to safely run multiple work-loads that would have previously required several comput-ers. Sophisticated monitoring and management systems also helped IT departments keep up with the ever growing number of computers and applications needed by their workforces.

While Microsoft Windows and IBM PC Compatibles have con-tinued to be the dominant personal computing platform, a resurgent Apple revived the Macintosh computer. But Apple’s creation of the iPhone smartphone and the iPad tablet had a much greater impact. Although many other companies had sought market success with handheld devices, Apple’s combi-nation of elegant hardware, a uniquely intuitive touch-driven interface known as iOS and the innovation of Internet-based music and application stores helped create a ravenous new market for mobile computing and applications.

Google soon followed with its Droid smartphones and tablets, running the Android OS. While Apple tightly controls develop-ment of the iPhone and iPad; Google made the Android OS open source. This has enabled dozens of companies to manu-facture Android compatible smartphones and tablets including Samsung, LG, and Motorola making Android OS the number one selling operating system.

In 2013 and 2014 Android outsold not only all other mobile operating systems combined, but also all PC operating sys-tems including Windows.

Getting mobileSince their debut in the mid-2000s, billions of smartphones and tablets have been sold globally, supported by mil-lions of mobile applications. Although they have largely

Chapter 2: A Brief History of Digital Computing and Computer Applications 23complemented and not displaced the personal computer, mobile devices have transformed corporate computing. Their touch screen interface, size and mobility have brought computing and applications to places simply impractical for personal computers. Revolutionizing inventory control, order entry, logistics and educational computing; mobile devices have also been incorporated into cars and mass transporta-tion, integrated with GPS to support navigation and survey-ing, and even mounted on the walls of hotel rooms to provide control over lighting and entertainment. Mobile devices and applications have enabled humans to easily leverage comput-ing while on the go, with access to the Internet and the world at their fingertips. Computing and communications technology are being integrated into seemingly everything, heralding the “Internet of Things”. Soon just about anything including the kitchen sink will be able to communicate, calculate, educate and entertain.

Embracing the cloudWeb applications have also evolved. Advances in web develop-ment, programming languages and communications protocols have enabled increasingly complex applications to move online. This has led to a new class of software hosted entirely online and sold via a subscription model instead of being sold for purchase outright.

Known as Software as a Service (SaaS), these web-based appli-cations negate the need for customers to install and manage the systems required to run these applications themselves. Instead this function is performed as a service by the provider of the SaaS application. This has enabled organizations to rap-idly provide new applications to their users without needing the IT infrastructure and staff traditionally required.

The ever increasing power of computing hardware, alongside innovations like virtualization, has also enabled Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). With IaaS, some or all of an organization’s server, storage and network infrastructures are hosted online as a service. This reduces, or in some cases eliminates, the need for organizations to own and manage these complex infrastructures themselves. It is also now possible to pro-vide your staff virtualized desktops hosted and managed for you online. This is known as Desktops as a Service (DaaS). Collectively the innovations of SaaS, IaaS and DaaS are known as cloud computing.

Applications For Dummies 24Now anyone with just a credit card can get access to online computing power and applications millions of times more powerful than the early computers, which only governments and the largest corporations on Earth had been able to afford. Digital computing and computer applications have advanced at a phenomenal rate in 60 years, completely transforming human civilization. Just imagine what is yet to come!

Chapter 3

Managing the Application Lifecycle: Selection to

PackagingIn This Chapter▶ Deciding on the applications your business needs

▶ Getting to grips with the “build or buy” question

▶ Supporting your local developer

A t their core, applications focus on two things: doing something more efficiently, or entertaining us. In order

for them to exist, they need to do things better than could be done without them. This chapter leads you through the main criteria organizations use to select the right application for a job, and covers the basics of packaging software.

Determining the App You NeedApplications are often written to increase efficiency. Whether the job you need is communicating, executing a task, or oper-ating a task or operating a machine, applications help you do it better.

Examples of applications that help you communicate better include:

✓ Word processors

✓ Presentation applications

✓ Email

Applications For Dummies 26 ✓ Instant messaging

✓ Social media

Applications which improve our working efficiency include:

✓ Spreadsheets

✓ Calculators

✓ Manufacturing control software

Applications are also a big part of how we entertain ourselves, whether they’re video games, video streaming, audio services or even the code running inside your new smart TV.

Enterprises and software companies have different motiva-tions for building apps. A software company tries to build something that solves a problem, provides efficiencies or entertains well enough that someone will pay money for it. If someone is already doing these things, the software com-pany must to it better, faster or cheaper than the existing options.

For an enterprise which isn’t in the software business the question is more about whether the problem solved or effi-ciency gained by using a piece of software is greater than the cost of that software. This is generally referred to as the return on investment. Most organizations will do an evaluation to ensure that the return (efficiencies gained or problems solved) are greater than the investment (the money spent acquiring or building and implementing the software).

Determining Whether to Build or Buy

If the first step is figuring out whether or not you need an application, the next step is deciding whether to build the app – that is, develop it yourself – or buy it.

Whether to build or buy is one of the most contentious deci-sions in information technology. The first step is truly under-standing what you need. You must then marry those needs with what is available in the market and decide whether what’s already out there fits with what you want.

Chapter 3: Managing the Application Lifecycle: Selection to Packaging 27The next sections discuss the benefits and downsides of each method of getting an application.

Buying off-the-shelf: Packaged softwareWhen you buy software, you are obviously paying someone else to develop it. As most of the companies you will acquire software from are “for profit” companies, you are not only paying for their development costs, but for their sales, mar-keting and profit. However, because a piece of commercial software is typically developed for many customers, the costs and the profit can be spread amongst all those customers. Additionally, when buying software, you know exactly how much it will cost you to acquire it. Also, most enterprise soft-ware has a fixed maintenance cost, so you’ll know the cost of ongoing software upgrades and technical support in advance.

However, according to Gartner, acquisition costs account for only about 30 per cent of the total five-year cost of ownership. This data shows us that deployment and ongoing IT support costs can be an order of magnitude more than the cost of just buying software. These components can be a significant factor when trying to calculate the total cost of software implementation.

If we get into greater detail around deployment, we can see other concerns that we need to be aware of regarding “Off the shelf” software. Commercial software is often developed according to the design philosophy of the developing com-pany, not that of the customer. Because of this, the software may not fit an organization’s operating environment. Perhaps a company has standardized on Linux and its associated devel-opment and management stack, but the software that suits their needs the best is a Windows application written with the .NET stack. This difference in design philosophy could mean that in order to accommodate this application, the company needs to add additional infrastructure, tools, and even prop-erly trained staff. This extra overhead naturally drives up the cost and complexity of deploying that application.

Applications For Dummies 28

Refining the job: Customized softwareAnother thing to consider when acquiring commercial soft-ware is that it is typically developed for a mass audience. That means that it may not fit perfectly with what you are trying to accomplish. Your organization may have to change its work-flow or business practices to align with the application, or use additional software to supplement the one that doesn’t per-fectly fit your needs.

Getting the right gearAn alternative is customization of the software. Many applica-tions provide Software Development Kits (SDKs) or applica-tion programming interfaces (APIs) that allow organizations to customize or build upon a particular piece of software. These tools and interfaces provide a significant level of flexibility for an organization, allowing them to modify or extend a piece of commercial software. Rather like a tailor modifying an “off-the-rack” suit, this can allow a customer to get a more “tailored fit” without having to have the suit made for them from scratch.

Watching the costsHowever, there can be a significant cost of customization. First off, you need to hire or assign developers that can do these customizations using the SDKs and APIs that the application provider has chosen or built. These skill sets may differ from the ones you have in-house. These additional requirements may force you to hire developers with those skills, retrain your existing staff or perhaps hire an external consultant.

These requirements mean that a customization project can be expensive, with all the risks of any other custom development project.

Keeping the scope clearIf your customizations become too voluminous, a variety of additional concerns arise:

✓ Have you modified the software to a point where it no longer fits the use for which it was originally designed?

Chapter 3: Managing the Application Lifecycle: Selection to Packaging 29 ✓ Does your customization make it hard for the vendor

to provide you with effective technical support and patching?

✓ What happens when the core software is upgraded?

✓ Will your customizations continue to work?

✓ Will you have a significant testing load every time the software updates?

✓ Will you have to bring back your consultants or develop-ers to update your customizations every time you refresh the core software?

The answers to these questions may vary based on the cus-tomization or the organization, but it is critical to take these things into consideration as you modify or customize software to fit your specific needs.

You can go your own way: The fully-customized routeNow that we understand the benefits and downsides of pack-aged software, perhaps fully customized software is the way to go? Well, let’s better understand the advantages and disadvan-tages of custom software as well.

Getting to the bottom line: cost pros and consLet’s start with cost. If you are using existing development talent available in house, you may be able to save money. Of course, those people don’t work for free, but if they are already on staff and their salaries are accounted for, perhaps that makes the development of software less expensive in some respects. Also, the internal development team doesn’t need to assign funds to marketing and sales, and they rarely need to make a profit from their development efforts.

Let’s talk about the cost downsides. Although an internal development team has little sales or marketing overhead and rarely needs to make a profit, it is seldom as efficient as a soft-ware company which develops and ships software for a living. As we mentioned earlier, software development firms also spread the cost of their development across many customers, as opposed to custom development in which the organization bears all the costs. There are still costs to implement custom

Applications For Dummies 30software, even if the software has been created to fit their environment.

Delivering what you needIn addition to the cost aspects, software developed in-house from scratch should provide a perfect fit for the needs of the organization. As a result, there should be little need for additional customization. The application would typically be developed based on the organizational design philosophy and designed from the ground up to run on the organization’s pre-ferred infrastructure. To use our earlier analogy, there should be no need for tailoring of this suit because everything from the cloth to the style was designed from scratch for you.

Avoiding scope creepThere is also an ever-present danger of scope creep, in which a project’s scope continues to grow and along with its costs and time to value. Because commercial software is typically devel-oped for many customers, the scope is based on an aggregate of many customer requirements. Custom software is for a single user, and therefore it is easy for that individual user to broaden the scope until they lose focus. Also, unlike the acqui-sition of off-the-shelf software, the cost of developing custom software is rarely fixed or as predictable. Organizations often run into unexpected costs during development. When this happens to a software company, they can spread those costs across many customers, perhaps taking a hit in their overall profit. However, an organization developing software for them-selves, must absorb the risk and the cost all on their own. These unexpected costs can be significant, and organizations rarely budget for them.

Another thing to consider is the time associated with building custom software from scratch compared with buying software and deploying it. Even if the software requires customization, there could be a significant delta in the time to value between developing software from scratch rather than buying some-thing that has already been built. The development of custom software usually requires more time than making a purchase.

Keeping it working: ongoing costsFinally, we come to the issue of ongoing costs. As we stated earlier, with commercial software we have a good picture of our costs over time. Although there may be deployment costs

Chapter 3: Managing the Application Lifecycle: Selection to Packaging 31associated with new versions of software, fixed maintenance means the costs of new version and software support are typi-cally very predictable. This is not the case with custom soft-ware, where the cost of support and adding functionality falls entirely on the organization. This unpredictability can be as strong as the initial application development phase leading to ongoing risk and cost.

So let’s net out the build-versus-buy discussion. Buying offers lower risk and often better predictability of costs, and because the risk and cost are spread amongst many customers, com-mercial software tends to be less expensive than custom software.

The trade-off is software that may not be a perfect fit, or may require expensive customization to work. Also, if your needs are too specialized, no software company may develop this functionality because it won’t be able to monetize it.

Custom software offers a perfect fit every time. It should fit the needs, infrastructure and philosophy of the organization that develops it. However, that custom fit often comes with increased costs, risks and a longer time to value.

These considerations are why it is imperative to understand your needs and your organizational requirements so you can see how well commercial software can fill those needs and meet those requirements without the needs for expensive customizations. Only you can make the right determination between build and buy, and only if you get all the facts.

It Takes Apps to Build Apps: Supporting Developers

It may seem strange to some, but in order to build, deploy, and run applications, we actually use large suites of . . . applications.

Chapter 2 provides a brief history of computing in which we see that as we moved from computing era to computing era, the application requirements changed and so too did the demands placed on the applications used to build those applications.

Applications For Dummies 32The concept of computer programming predates the digital computer itself, and it has evolved rapidly, as the computer has. Methods of programming computers have evolved from moving gears, to manually turning on and off electri-cal switches, to using digital codes represented by 0s and 1s. Subsequently, we’ve seen the emergence of computer languages that could be written so that humans could read them before being translated or compiled into a machine- or computer-readable format.

As the processing power of computers grew, and the require-ments for applications became more complex and sophisti-cated, programming languages evolved. FORTRAN, designed for scientific computing, gave way to COBOL, better suited for business needs. From there we’ve seen a parade of program-ming languages, leading to today’s popular program languages such as C, C++ and Java.

Beyond the languages themselves, there are ever-evolving tools which help developers write their code. The first tools were punched cards or Hollerith cards. These were stiff pieces of paper with holes punched in them to represent the machine code and later, digital code. The first digital tools for writ-ing code were simple text editors and compilers. We quickly moved to graphical development interfaces allowing devel-opers simpler tools for building their applications and often offering real-time feedback on code syntax. These gave way to the Integrated Development Environment (IDE), which brought together the code editor, all of the debugging and testing tech-nology, the tools for graphical interface building, and the com-piler, into a single powerful tool.

For decades, applications were often written for and therefore tied to particular operating systems. This lack of flexibility was fine when a single operating system dominated the com-puter or the data center. Over time, as heterogeneity became more of a rule than an exception, customers became appre-hensive about tying their code to a single platform. Enter Sun Microsystems and their Java programming language. Java was designed to ‘Write once, run everywhere’ with a concept of a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that ran on top of an operating system. This capability theoretically allowed Java code to run inside a JVM independent of the underlying operating system.

This technology rapidly evolved into a set of enterprise-class interfaces and tools that allowed powerful applications to be

Chapter 3: Managing the Application Lifecycle: Selection to Packaging 33run across many platforms. These applications were run inside application servers, written for these application servers instead of being tied to a particular operating system or plat-form. Other languages and services were inevitably encapsu-lated in application servers, and portable applications became a reality.

As application code became further and further abstracted from the operating systems, savvy cloud architects realized that running the applications server itself in the corporate data center was no longer a requirement. This realization led to the emergence of Platform as a Service (PaaS). These multi-tenant application servers in the cloud, allowed people to write their code in their IDE, and then push it to the cloud for execution. This technology allowed the applications to run on cloud infrastructure without the burden of managing servers, operating systems or even application servers.

Applications For Dummies 34

Chapter 4

The Application Lifecycle: Deployment to

DecommissioningIn This Chapter▶ Learn the history of application deployment

▶ Get the lowdown on managing and monitoring apps

▶ Understand the crucial importance of securing your apps

▶ Decommission old apps with confidence

O kay, so you’ve got your application, whether you’ve bought it off-the-shelf or built it from scratch. This chap-

ter continues the discussion of the steps of the Application Lifecycle from deployment to decommissioning.

Deploying ApplicationsBefore you can use an application, you have to deploy it. Deployment is simply another term for installation. This sec-tion gives you what you need to know on deployment.

Installing apps manuallyThe oldest method for deploying applications to computing devices was to install them manually. Performed either by a technician or the end users themselves, manually installing applications may be suitable for small organizations with-out many devices. But as the number of users and devices

Applications For Dummies 36increases, the inefficiency of this manual approach becomes obvious, as the number of technicians significantly increases the amount of time required. This inefficiency is embodied in the tongue-in-cheek IT term term SneakerNET, in which the IT technician’s sneakers replace the network as the method to transfer applications and data between multiple devices.

Using application deployment systems

To address this inefficiency, PC application deployment sys-tems first began to appear in the 1990’s. These systems use the network to automatically deploy applications on multiple personal computers. This makes it possible for a relatively small number of technicians to deploy software to a very large number of devices. These systems became particularly useful as IT infrastructures grew to encompass multiple geographic locations. From a central point a single technician could now provide software to users located all over the world. However, for all of their benefits, these application deployment systems are very complex, requiring significant IT resources to support and maintain.

Deploying through the OSAnother method of deploying applications is to include them with the operating system image used to build and update devices. This negates the need to separately install the appli-cations as they are deployed with the base operating system. However, updating the previously installed applications requires either the use of an alternate deployment method or the re-deployment of an entire, updated system image when only a small application change may be required. Maintaining stable system images is also an intricate task, made more difficult as the number of applications included in the image increases.

Using terminal serversAccess to applications can also be provided via special server computers capable of supporting multiple users accessing the same application simultaneously. These systems are com-monly referred to as terminal servers. The applications they

Chapter 4: The Application Lifecycle Deployment to Decommissioning 37provide are known as Hosted Applications as they run or are hosted on behalf of users on the special Terminal Servers. Other terms for this technology include Remote Applications and Published Applications. Although this approach to appli-cation deployment negates the need to install them on every device, the applications must still be deployed to the Terminal Servers. As these servers support multiple users, the impact of a failed installation has the potential to negatively impact a much larger percentage of the user community than a failed deployment to a single-user device. Hosted Applications also require users to be connected to the network, and as such are not a viable solution for users who need to use their applica-tions offline. Like application deployment systems, Terminal Servers are also complex to support.

SaaS at your serviceSaaS applications may be a good alternative for organizations that wish to avoid such complexity and reduce their reliance on IT staff. SaaS, or Software as a Service, consists of applica-tions hosted by a third party, negating the need for organiza-tions to deploy and maintain the applications and supporting systems themselves. Typically, SaaS applications are web-based and like hosted applications require users to be con-nected to the corporate network or Internet. Unlike traditional applications, organizations commonly subscribe to SaaS appli-cations instead of purchasing them, with any required deploy-ment performed by the vendor on the vendor’s infrastructure. Often access to SaaS applications can be provided to users within minutes of subscribing, making them an ideal option for organizations that need to rapidly deploy new computing func-tionality to their users.

Managing ApplicationsLike all technology, applications need to be managed. Application management covers all aspects of the appli-cation lifecycle from application selection and handling requests for new applications, to deployment, application inventory, license tracking, end-user training, support, patch-ing and planning for application upgrades, and ultimately decommissioning.

Applications For Dummies 38While much of application management entails more business process than technology, applications are available to help organizations manage their software investment. Typically software deployment systems and PC Lifecycle Management (PCLM) tools provide application management capabilities while some organizations develop their own systems to sup-port their unique processes.

Providing a stable, functional and cost-effective computing environment to support the business and user community requires comprehensive application management.

Monitoring ApplicationsYou need to monitor applications that are essential to the busi-ness. You can monitor applications for availability, health, per-formance, security and faults, notifying the IT department of application issues before end users notice anything is wrong.

Many enterprise applications have monitoring capabilities built in. These applications are able to log errors and automati-cally send alerts and performance data to support technicians.

If applications do not have comprehensive monitoring capa-bilities, you can still monitor them using special monitoring systems. These systems are typically capable of monitoring multiple applications, and some also keep an eye on the health of the underlying computer and network infrastructures sup-porting the application.

However these monitoring systems are often expensive and complex, requiring a significant investment of time and resources by IT. For organizations that do not have the capa-bility to support such systems, Software as a Service (SaaS) applications are a good solution. One of the value-added ben-efits of SaaS applications is that both the application and its supporting infrastructure are monitored for the customer by the SaaS vendor.

Chapter 4: The Application Lifecycle Deployment to Decommissioning 39

Securing ApplicationsSecuring the computing infrastructure against misuse and data theft is absolutely critical, and this includes applications. Many applications provide access to sensitive and valuable data. With identify theft and hacker attacks on the rise, you must properly secure all applications.

Making identity secureSecuring applications and data requires a multi-pronged approach. Multiple defenses are required to provide compre-hensive and effective security. One of the first lines of defense is user authentication. Tightly controlling which users have access to an application starts with being able to accurately identify each user and to protect their identity from misuse. User accounts and passwords are the most basic forms of user identify and access control. Since user passwords are fre-quently the weakest link in the security chain, more advanced mechanisms like two-factor authentication systems provide a higher level of security and user identification. These systems typically use a password combined with a unique hardware or software generated token which only the individual user can access. The combination of a password plus the unique token provides a higher level of security and validation of the user’s identity.

Controlling accessThe next line of defense is access control. Some applications have their own mechanism for limiting access to only autho-rized user accounts. Many applications rely on the device’s operating system and a centralized directory of user accounts to govern access. This approach helps reduce the burden on both IT departments and end users as there are fewer user accounts for IT to track and passwords for users to remember.

Many modern application control systems feature a single sign-on capability. Single sign-on systems aggregate access to multiple applications with separate authentication systems using a single user account. This simplifies access for end users while providing IT a central point to control and monitor application usage.

Applications For Dummies 40

Introducing role-based access control

Once the user has been authenticated and permitted access, some applications further limit what the user can do with the program. Applications with role-based access control (RBAC) are able to define different classes of users, each with different levels of authority to use parts of the application. A banking program for example, might have one role for tellers enabling them to service customer accounts but preventing them from creating new ones. A supervisor role could provide all the capabilities of a teller, plus the ability to monitor the activities of all tellers. A security officer role would enable monitoring use of the system to help detect and prevent fraud, but not allow security staff to manipulate customer accounts. And an administrator role would provide access to the entire system, including the ability to assign user accounts to specific roles.

Ensuring effective encryptionIn addition to authenticating valid users and controlling what they can do with applications, it is important to secure the application data. Encryption is one of the best ways to secure data, both when it is at rest, stored within the application or on disk; and when it is being transmitted across the network. Encryption protects data by scrambling it so that is unread-able until decrypted when accessed by an authorized user.

Decommissioning ApplicationsWhen you no longer need an application, you should decom-mission it. Decommissioning an application means removing it from service. Sometimes you need to do this because a new application provides a better solution or includes the function-ality provided by the one being decommissioned. The need may also be because of changing business requirements that make the old application obsolete.

Whatever the reason, when an application is decommissioned you must remove it from any systems it has been installed upon. Even if an application is no longer used, it can still cause conflicts with other applications. Removing decommissioned

Chapter 4: The Application Lifecycle Deployment to Decommissioning 41applications may also be required in order to comply with soft-ware license agreements that require an application to be fully uninstalled when the terms of the agreement end.

Applications that are installed also need to be updated with security patches, even if they are no longer needed. Leaving them installed could make it possible for a hacker to use them to steal data or disrupt the business.

Removing an application from a device is typically the reverse of the process used to install it. Applications can be manually uninstalled by technicians or the end user by using the appli-cation’s uninstallation routine. Most application deployment systems for computers, tablets and smartphones are also able to uninstall applications, reversing the process they used to install them. If the application was installed as part of a system image, like those used to deploy virtual desktops and hosted application servers, it can be removed by deploying a new image.

When you have fully decommissioned an application, be sure to update application inventories and system documentation to help maintain a supportable infrastructure.

Applications For Dummies 42

Chapter 5

Applications of the FutureIn This Chapter▶ Understanding the scope of the permanent IT revolution

▶ Merging innovation and legacy

▶ Checking out the crystal ball: apps in 2020

▶ Getting to grips with context and location awareness

O kay, so if you have been reading the book (and enjoying it) you will realize that there is more to applications than

meets the eye. That’s no bad thing, as it makes you think hard about how you can do things differently to make improve-ments to the business and make end users happy (happier, anyway). In this chapter we are going to perform a bit of star gazing, to hopefully put into context where we believe the future of applications is headed, what happens to devices, and most importantly, why should we care. We also talk about the elephant in the room—the Internet of Things (IoT)—and how this phenomenon will will impact both the consumer world and the business world.

Innovation, Innovation, Innovation

To look forward we need to briefly look back, and not too far: It’s only in Chapter 2. IT has evolved at an alarming rate since its first beginnings in the 1940s, but the one thing that has remained constant is the velocity at which complexity and choice has continued to impact organizations. The pace of innovation has been phenomenal in the last 10 years, to the point where it is easy to see why end users are disappointed with the IT they use at work, because in reality they are IT

Applications For Dummies 44administrators in their personal lives. And with the advent of the IoT they are looking to become mini network administra-tors too. It’s clear that any move to a modern application deliv-ery model needs to coexist with legacy applications that the business still depends upon. However, that doesn’t stop you planning for the future, or what many organizations are calling their 2020 Vision.

Applications in the future will become even further removed from the desktop itself. As we move forward we expect (as our customers are telling us) the enterprise desktop to sig-nificantly decline in importance with the rise of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) programs driving a different way of operating across the busi-ness. Expect devices to all be treated as untrusted, with man-agement moving towards the newer model of mobile device management.

So what will the future hold for enterprise applications? Well we don’t think it will come as any surprise that you can expect to find organizations adopt the mobile cloud architecture. This concept will see applications built for cloud economies of scale and consumed by users with mobile devices. As it stands to date, the consumer world of tablet applications leverages a mobile client/cloud architecture and it is evident that this model’s success—supported with agile software develop-ment methods—is attractive to enterprise businesses that are desperate to innovate and maintain their relevance in their marketplace.

As organizations continue to try to battle the flood of new con-sumer technology that is entering the business, whether that’s in the realm of traditional devices (laptop, phone or tablet) or the more recent additions of wearable technology (smart watches), the challenges will be to achieve one of two ends:

✓ Develop applications that are consumable across all operating systems.

✓ Develop applications that are native for a preferred oper-ating system.

The latter option is useful if you want to take advantage of native device characteristics, but poses both technical and commercial challenges when supporting BYO environments. In this new world expect to hear about technologies/frameworks

Chapter 5: Applications of the Future 45such as HTML5, EMM, Fluid and DevOps. “Great,” I hear you say, “more acronyms!” Let’s explore each of these areas a little bit.

It is worth thinking about your options for application develop-ment at this juncture as you proceed down a route of device independence with a cloud/mobile first mindset. These options are broadly categorized as follows:

✓ native apps are specific to a mobile platform using the development tools and language that the platform sup-ports. Native apps look and perform the best, taking advantage of the physical capabilities of the device.

✓ htmL5 apps use standard web technologies (typically HTML5, JavaScript and CSS). This is a write-once-run-anywhere approach and creates cross-platform mobile applications that work on multiple devices. Some limita-tions remain, specifically session management, secure offline storage, and access to native device functionality (camera, calendar, accelerometer geolocation, and so on).

✓ hybrid apps make it possible to embed HTML5 apps inside a thin native container, combining the best (and worst) elements of native and HTML5 apps.

HTML5HTML5 is seen as a silver bullet by many organizations to solve the challenge of cross platform development, but in reality you can’t beat developing applications that are native to the device, which can leverage built-in device capabilities. But as we have already discussed that comes with technical and cost chal-lenges depending on your hardware policy.

An HTML5 mobile app is basically a series of web pages that are designed to work on a small form factor. HTML5 apps are device agnostic and can be opened with any modern mobile browser. HTML5 has become a very popular way for building mobile applications. Multiple UI frameworks are available for solving very complex problems that stop you having to rein-vent the wheel.

Applications For Dummies 46

Native mobile applicationsNative apps provide the best usability, functionality and over-all mobile experience. Native apps are usually developed using an integrated development environment (IDE). IDEs provide tools for building, debugging, project management, and ver-sion control.

Native apps give you direct access to:

✓ Touch features

✓ Fast graphics

✓ Hardware components

✓ Fluid animation

✓ Ease of adoption

Sounds great, right? But remember, you might have a plethora of devices and operating systems to support across your business.

Hybrid mobile applicationsHybrid development, as you might assume, combines the best of both development environments. A hybrid app is ultimately defined as a web application that is mainly built from HTML5 and JavaScript, and is then wrapped inside a native container, providing access to native features on the device.

Cloud/SaaSLike it or hate it, cloud is no longer a buzzword with limited meaning: It has become a de facto standard which organiza-tions are adopting to deliver scalable end-user services. In the context of end-user applications we are specifically talking about SaaS applications.

Organizations are adopting SaaS applications, which have his-torically been in-house services involving, for example, collab-oration and messaging, to reduce cost and support the organi-zation’s entrance into the cloud era. One of the challenges with SaaS happens when you need to standardize on an authenti-cation mechanism and wish to provide a single password, to

Chapter 5: Applications of the Future 47drive down costs on the service desk and improve end-user adoption.

To support this across tablet and traditional devices you need to think about a workspace service that aggregates SaaS, Web, Mobile and Windows applications into a context (device) aware service. This workspace becomes the main point of entry for the end user into the corporate world of applications and data, and handles secondary sign-on to other applications.

Enterprise mobility management (EMM)

Clearly, the enterprise world has become despondent with desktop services and the application challenges that come with them. A common approach is to treat traditional com-puting devices in the same way as are with untrusted mobile devices. These devices are not subjected to traditional man-agement processes – such as application lifecycle management and group policy processing – which are notoriously painful to execute and manage.

One school of thought wishes to lift the technology and capa-bilities that have been created in supporting mobile devices, and apply that simplicity and cost model to desktop comput-ing. Welcome to the world of EMM. EMM is the collection of people, processes and technology focused on managing the increasing volume of end-user assets in a business context.

EMM is your mobile estate’s best friend. If you’re adopting mobility in your business you need EMM to protect your end users and your business and simplify the management of that estate.

DevOpsAs your organization continues to move to a more agile way of developing business applications that support the mobile cloud era, a fundamental shift in your development cycle needs to happen: Hence the industry-wide interest in DevOps.

DevOps is a software development methodology that high-lights the importance of communication, collaboration, inte-gration, automation, and measurement of cooperation. DevOps

Applications For Dummies 48acknowledges the interdependence of software development and IT operations. It aims to help an organization rapidly pro-duce software products and services and to improve opera-tions performance.

DevOps attempts to encourage the development of communi-cation skills, understanding the business landscape that the application is being developed for and, importantly, ensuring it succeeds in its purpose.

Modern and Legacy Living Side by Side

Okay, so now you know about some of the technologies and development frameworks that the industry is adopting or considering. It’s time to think about how the new and old will coexist. 25 or more years of applications will not be wiped out anytime soon, but your desktop and devices will be changing rapidly.

Application virtualizationAn industry-accepted way to support legacy applications with modern ones is Application Virtualization. Many organizations have a desire to move towards an Application as a Service model where they are no longer in the business of managing desktops. Their future vision is SaaS, mobile and browser but they still have the annoyance of Windows client server appli-cations. This is where application virtualization becomes stra-tegic in your migration plans.

Application virtualization is software technology that abstracts and encapsulates the application from the underly-ing operating system on which it is executed. A fully virtual-ized application is not installed, although it is still executed as if it were. The application behaves at runtime like it is directly interfacing with the original operating system and all the resources managed by it, but can be containerized to varying degrees.

When you combine this model with your SaaS and mobile applications you need to aggregate them to the end user to simplify access. The role of the workspace (amongst others)

Chapter 5: Applications of the Future 49supports the coexistence of legacy and modern application architectures side-by-side and is typically presented through a web browser. Your workspace should be context aware (see later) and will become the heart of your end-users’ experience.

The Internet of Things (IoT)The concept of the Internet of Things isn’t new. It has been described for 20 years as a world where things (devices and/or sensors) are connected and able to share data. As with many pervasive technologies, the IoT hasn’t just become adopted for any random reason. Like many technologies that “just make sense” there is a coming together of other supporting technologies to create the perfect storm. The world of IoT is no different and is brought to life by supporting technologies such as internet connectivity, cost of hardware, smarter soft-ware, and ultimately machine-to-machine communications. These factors combined are driving the IoT marketplace.

As these “things” connect and begin sharing data, they bring huge improvements in logistics, employee efficiency, energy consumption and personal productivity. This is the promise of the Internet of Things (IoT).

In 2013 there were 13 billion online devices. It is estimated that by 2020 there will 50 billion devices, some of which haven’t even been invented yet! Which brings me nicely onto 2020: Well, what have you got planned?

2020 Vision (Star Gazing)So in 2020 will your desktop be on the next version of Windows? Hey, will you even still have a desktop? What will your application strategy be and, importantly, what will your daily work–life pattern be? It’s worth pausing and thinking about the interactions in 2020 that may or will change based upon technology.

Think about your daily routine and try to imagine how technol-ogy will impact your working life for the better. You get up in the morning with an alarm clock that is Internet connected. It knows your work schedule and also the commute chal-lenges that lie ahead for you, so it changes your alarm time

Applications For Dummies 50dynamically. Once up, you’re into the bathroom, where the shower door has the ability to become an interactive screen that displays all the things you need to consider during the day and any business issues that have occurred overnight to bring you up to speed.

As you move to the kitchen, you find a set of white goods that are connected to each other and to a smart wall telling you vital stats about your house (temperature, security, and energy usage, for example). The same smart wall also has the ability to carry on the interactive session you started in the shower.

In 2020 expect a greater emphasis on work-life balance, so be prepared to deliver not only applications and data to any loca-tion but also to holographic teleconferences. Technology that has been used in concerts such as Musion with great success will continue to find its way into consumer lives at a cheaper price. In doing this we have the ability to collaborate at a time that works for us and is not dictated by traditional 9-5 working practices.

The car is the next place where you’ll notice change. Expect to see vehicles that are driverless and/or highly connected through machine-to-machine communications. Your car’s vital stats will be monitored by garages, changing the model associ-ated with servicing. Your car will also have GPS for things such as emergency services or breakdown services. Satnav will be standard, but in a more HUD model whereby it is in the driver’s line of sight but not impacting his or her driving ability. In driverless cars, expect the windscreen to become yet another interactive display with an element of augmented reality blended into it to provide a more enhanced driving experience. This screen will become a workspace in which you are able to launch and view applications controlled by gestures.

All of this is before you actually get into the office, which will be largely controlled by touch- and gesture-based comput-ing models. It is likely that collaboration across different time zones will no longer be a challenge, with true interactive whiteboards sessions using holographic representations of attendees.

These are just a few examples of what the workspace of 2020 might hold, but as you can see it is highly connected and highly collaborative with application interactions being a lot more intuitive than they are today.

Chapter 5: Applications of the Future 51

Interactions and ConsiderationsThe previous sections show how some of your physical inter-actions may change in 2020, and we have also acknowledged that the world of applications is changing to a more mobile, cloud-driven world. What does that mean for possible future interactions with your application estate, and what are the key considerations you need to think about?

It is likely that your application interactions will change to support some of the following more natural ways of operating with technology: haptic technology, gesture recognition, and augmented reality.

Haptic TechnologyHaptic technology is tactile technology, which recreates the sense of touch through the application of force, vibration or motion to the user via the device they are using. The simula-tion can support the creation and control of virtual objects, and further supports the remote control of machines and devices. Haptic technology will be integrated into the touch device era on tablets and smartphones, offering up a world of innovative applications that need to capture user exertion levels.

Gesture RecognitionGesture computing has already entered the home through the gaming world, and offers the ability for humans to com-municate with machines without any mechanical devices. The concept, for example allows an individual to point a finger at a computer and control the interactions, making traditional input devices such as mouse, keyboard and touch-screens redundant.

Augmented Reality (AR)AR is a live view of the physical world through your eyes, and is augmented with context-aware computer-generated informa-tion, such as sound, video and graphics.

Applications For Dummies 52With the help of advanced AR technology the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes digitally manipulable. Social interactions are great examples of situa-tions in which AR would be useful in the business world, sup-porting better customer engagement.

Context and Location Awareness

Delivery of content and applications to drive business out-comes is the sole purpose of the IT organization. IT needs to ensure that the right data is provided with the right level of security and right application construct driving the right expe-rience to the user, but most importantly, protect both the user and the business. This type of scenario is where we start to see both context- and location-aware technology supporting the delivery of the application and content.

The delivery of a full desktop operating system to a small form factor, touch-enabled device is never going to be a great experience. Equally, presenting users with applications that are not suitable to natively run on the end user’s device is a bad experience (Context Awareness). The application delivery technology needs to be aware of the device that is connecting to the environment in order for it to intelligently deliver the right experience.

For those organizations that operate under strict regulatory requirements, users who work from remote or mobile loca-tions need to be treated with a different level of security (Location Awareness). A device’s location is usually deter-mined by one of three methods:

✓ GPS.

✓ Mobile tower triangulation.

✓ The device’s MAC address.

So how do you address these needs, and what should you be looking for in an application delivery platform? The following are some of the key issues you need to be thinking about.

Chapter 5: Applications of the Future 53

GeofencingGeofencing is a feature that uses the GPS or RFID to define geographical boundaries. A geofence is a virtual barrier. You as a business can define what happens to the user’s asset once they enter or leave the area surrounded by that virtual bar-rier. You may, for argument’s sake, wish for all applications to be run through a central data center, leveraging technologies such as VDI, so you can control usage. Again you might force a user to connect back to the office before consuming SaaS applications. The advantage of this is that you can then apply additional security mechanisms to the user’s session.

Other examples of geofencing might be where a network administrator can set up alerts so that when a corporate owned tablet leaves the business premises, the administrator can disable the device. A marketer can geofence a shop and send an e-voucher to a customer who has downloaded a par-ticular mobile app when the customer and device enters the store.

Host Posture CheckingSo you know where your assets are, because you have them tracked (EMM), and you have set policies up for devices that enter and access your virtual barriers. You now need to be certain that the device hasn’t got any security vulnerabilities. This is known as posture assessment and refers to the act of applying a set of rules to the device posture and establishing the correct level of network access. Once you have determined the posture of the asset you can then decide on how to handle the connecting request.

Device SwitchingIt is highly unlikely that users will consolidate the volume of devices they have access to over the next five years. In fact it is estimated that consumers will access on average nine devices a day. This poses real questions about how we switch between each device and maintain productivity. Well, if you have read the entire book so far (I hope you have) you will have (hopefully) started to piece together both some scenar-ios and some technologies that can help.

Applications For Dummies 54The key to switching between devices is standardization in the presentation of the environment across all those devices. Providing the look and feel is the same, the switching becomes easier. Couple that with a context- and location-aware environ-ment, and all of a sudden you have an enterprise workspace that can port across your multiple devices, sense what can run natively, and knows what security levels you need and are appropriate given your current location. Obviously, you need applications to present to the end user, and we have discussed so far some of the different types of applications you are likely to encounter.

One of the biggest challenges has historically been creating data and making sure that it is accessible across multiple devices if you need it to be. For example what if you create data on your smartphone and need to review it later on your watch, laptop, tablet, desktop, or whatever it may be? This is where enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) applications come into play, allowing you to create and sync instantly on any device, and then pick up and review on another device. This is similar to Dropbox, but runs securely based upon your authen-tication protocols in your data center.

Applications have always been a challenge and no doubt they will continue to be in the future. If we can abstract away from the operating system and move towards a mobile cloud world underpinned with a strong DevOps culture, many of the chal-lenges we face will be removed and the end-user experience will be improved. And isn’t that what we strive to do as IT organizations?

Chapter 6

Ten Take-away PointsIn This Chapter▶ Making the critical choice between buy and build

▶ Managing the whole application life cycle

▶ Understanding the speed of change in IT delivery

T his book has taken you on quite a journey. You got to go from the history of applications, to why and how appli-

cations get built, to how they get deployed, right through to where they are going in the future. Here are a few key points you might want to bear in mind.

Buying or BuildingApplications are fundamentally built to help us do things more efficiently. If the efficiency gained using an application is greater than the cost of buying or building it, then you have the beginning of a business case for that application.

The decision to buy or build an application is a difficult one and will be different for every use case and every application.

There are diverse toolsets available for building, deploying and running applications, and you should investigate which ones make the most sense for you.

SaaS and The CloudSaaS applications may be a good alternative for organizations that wish to avoid complexity and reduce their reliance on IT staff.

Applications For Dummies 56

Managing with ConfidenceApplication management covers all aspects of the application lifecycle. This includes application selection and handling requests for new applications, deployment, application inven-tory, license tracking, end-user training, support, patching, planning for upgrades, and ultimately their decommission.

Applications that are essential to the business should be moni-tored and secured. Multiple defenses are required to provide comprehensive and effective security.

Dealing with DevelopmentApplication development standards need to match the speed of consumer application development. Think about the native vs hybrid vs. HTML5 challenges and how that aligns to your bring-your-own or choose-your-own (BYO/CYO) projects.

DevOps will become even more important to ensure effec-tive collaboration between development, operations and end users.

The Evolution of the DesktopOrganizations will be moving away from dependence on desk-top management to a future centered on applications, data and user profiles across all devices. Organizations will be increas-ingly focused on application and data access, performance and user experience.

Managing the Mobile Environment

An increase in mobile devices means you need to ensure that your delivery and management technologies are both context- and location-aware to ensure the best experience, along with protecting company intelligence.

Chapter 6: Ten Take-away Points 57

Getting to Grips with EMMEnterprise Mobility Management will continue to evolve and become the de facto approach for all device management, removing the reliance on group policy object and traditional PC lifecycle management technologies. This will increase man-agement efficiency while improving the end-users’ experience.

Blending Past and PresentOrganizations need to plan for the co-existence of legacy and modern applications, and have a single pane of glass and set of policies to present this to enterprise consumers.

The Rise of the MachinesThe Internet of Things will become a core part of your end-user computing (EUC) journey, not just for end users but also for machine-to-machine communications. As millions of devices, sensors, and applications begin to talk to each other, these communications will need to be managed and relevant. The toolsets to do that are still evolving.

Dusting Off Your Crystal BallStart thinking about your 2020 vision now and try to see the world through a day in the life of the end user. In the future, there will be even more focus on work/life balance as the divi-sions between the two distinct worlds continue to blur.

Applications For Dummies 58

Appendix

Resources

T his is a collection of online resources you can use to enhance your understanding of application management

and delivery.

✓ Don’t Let a mountain of “technical Debt” Derail mobile and customer-facing app Delivery. Forrester Research, October 28, 2014. By phil murphy with Christopher Mines, Kurt Bittner, Eric Wheeler <www.forrester.com/Dont+Let+A+Mountain+Of+Technical+Debt+Derail+Mobile+And+CustomerFacing+App+Delivery/fulltext/-/E-res103942>

✓ competitive pressures Drive the business case for modern application Delivery. (Forrester Research, October 15, 2014). By Kurt Bittner, Diego Lo Giudice with Christopher Mines, Phil Murphy, Amy DeMartine, Dominique Whittaker <www.forrester.com/Competitive+Pressures+Drive+The+Business+Case+For+Modern+Application+Delivery/fulltext/-/E-res115535>

✓ equipped to thrive: help employees turn mobile moments into customer Value. (Forrester Research February 4, 2015). By David K. Johnson, Martha Bennett, Dan Bieler, Eveline Oehrlich with Christopher Voce, Mark Lindwall, TJ Keitt, Andrew Hewitt <www.forrester.com/Equipped+To+Thrive+Help+Employees+Turn+Mobile+Moments+Into+Customer+Value/fulltext/-/E-RES120182>

Applications For Dummies 60 ✓ match Digital Workspace Delivery Systems to your

organization’s Workforce: personas help you Decide on Virtual Desktops, Virtual apps, or native apps (Forrester Research, August 21, 2014). By David K. Johnson with Christopher Voce, Michelle Mai, Michael Caputo <www.forrester.com/Match+Digital+Workspace+Delivery+Systems+To+Your+Organizations+Workforce/fulltext/-/E-RES117452>

✓ application-Delivery options in Vmware horizon 6 (Technical White Paper) <www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vmware-horizon-view-workspace-application-delivery-options.pdf>

✓ measuring the business Value of Vmware horizon View (IDC Research, December 2013). By Randy Perry, Brett Waldman. An IDC analysis of organizations adopting a centralized virtual desktop (CVD) computing environment (also known as virtual desktop infrastructure [VDI]) with the use of VMware Horizon <www.vmware.com/files/pdf/view/IDC-Quantifying-Business-Value-VMware-View-WP.pdf>

✓ the future of enterprise applications is mobility (Gartner Research, 9 July 2014). By Michael Maoz and Robert P. Desisto <www.gartner.com/doc/2793917>

✓ Soa and application architecture Key initiative overview (Gartner Research, 16 July 2014). By Ross Altman and Kirk Knoernschild <www.gartner.com/doc/2799817>

✓ application rationalization Key initiative overview. (Gartner Research, 25 July 2013). By Bill Swanton. <www.gartner.com/doc/2551315>

✓ u.S. School System utilizes Vmware horizon View to Drive Value (IDC Research; Buyer Case Study). By: Ian Song. <www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=AP246224>

ISBN: 978-1-119-09005-2Not for resale

Open the book and find:

• The history of apps—how they have evolved and why you should care

• An overview of differ-ent approaches to building, delivering, securing and manag-ing apps

• Tips and trade-offs for getting started

• How to plan for a world where legacy and modern apps coexist

Applications are designed to make us more productive. And over the years digital computing and applications have evolved at a phenomenal rate. But when it comes to supporting and delivering these apps—when does it make sense to build vs. buy? How do you decide which apps make the most sense for your business? How do you determine which apps make the most sense for your business? And more importantly, how do you ensure you don’t get overwhelmed with everything that goes into delivering, managing, securing and monitoring apps on an ongoing basis?Well, this book will help you with all of this. It spells out everything you need to know to put a successful application strategy in place and maintain your sanity in the process!

•Mapoutyourplan—findoutwhattoconsiderwhendevisingyourapplicationstrategy

•Discovertheoptions—understandtheprosandconsofcommontoolsusedtodeliver,manageandmonitorapps

•Getgoing—learncommontipsandbestpracticestohelpyoudeployappstodayand tomorrow

It’s all about Apps!

Charles Barrett has been working in IT for over 18 years as a Consultant, Architect, Board Director and as a Business Solution Architect at VMware. Charles was also co-author of the VMware BYOD for Dummies guide released in 2014.

Mark Ewert has been working with IT for over 25 years and has designed hundreds of successful IT solutions. Currently Mark is the Lead Technologist on VMware’s EUC Competitive Marketing Team.

Ben Goodman is the Lead Evangelist for VMware’s End-User Computing products. He is responsible for helping craft and articulate VMware’s vision and strategy for end-user computing. Prior to his time at VMware he was the Principal Identity Strategist at Novell, where he helped build and grow their Identity Management portfolio.