VMware has long focused on breaking software applications' dependency on specific hardware. Now, the virtualisation solution provider is moving even further, with a product expected to be released in about a year, according to Vittorio Viarengo, VP for End-User Computing at VMware.
“It takes the notion of 'device agnostic' to the next level. It's not just device agnostic for new and Web applications, but also for legacy applications,” said Viarengo in an exclusive interview at VMworld last month. “You can take a Windows application, even on your desktop, and then you drop this little AppBlast thingy. Next thing you know, you're on the iPad, and you access that application through HTML.”
The whole idea is to give old applications new legs, said Viarengo.
“It's all about giving you universal access to legacy applications, those applications that may not ever be written for the Web or for mobile devices, such as departmental applications that were built 10 years ago with Powerbuilder, Visual Basic and so on.”
No software required
Intriguingly, VMware insists that no AppBlast software of any kind is required on the device to run legacy applications. “There is nothing running on the client other than the HTML5 browser. No plug-ins, no nothing,” according to Viarengo.
“There are a lot of ways to do it, but to do it well is the real challenge. We're spending quite a bit of time on whether you do compression on the back-end, or the front-end. These days, with the more powerful iPads, you can make some pretty interesting choices,” said Herrod.
“The crux of the problem is, what do I do on a server, how much network bandwidth do I have, and what can I do on the client. So this is an adaptive approach to doing that. If you don't have a client capable of doing everything, you do it on a server. But if you have a powerful client, you can save bandwidth by doing some of it on the other side.
“The AppBlast technology does not require virtualisation. It could be something running on a piece of physical machinery as well,” explained Herrod.
Snapshots of change
AppBlast takes 'snapshots' of the application window on the device, but just sends through changes between one fraction of a second and the next.
“We haven't announced it as a product at this point. It is a lab project right now. It does a lot of interesting things,” said Herrod. “Basically, if you're looking at the actual window on the device you're working with, you're taking PNGs, so you're capturing it as an image. Then we do 'smart diffs' - so that we know changes, and we're sending just the differences between the images to the other side.
“Ultimately, it is technology that will help us deliver apps from anywhere to anywhere,” concluded Herrod.
Just how wide 'anywhere' is, is also interesting. AppBlast will accept a very wide range of old applications.
“[The application] has to be built for the x86 architecture. That is the main requirement,” said Viarengo.
Just plain HTML5 vanilla
Asked whether VMware is actively influencing industry standards for HTML5, Viarengo said: “We are not super involved in the definition of that standard. Like any other standard, it is always evolving. Sure, there are differences between various browsers' implementations, but when was the last time you went to a Web site and the Web page did not really display? For the most part, it works.”
The power of HTML5 is that it can deliver rich media over a browser, without needing other add-ons.
“I think what's great about HTML5 is that they're taking a lot of things, that previously you needed extensions like Flash, video plug-ins, all that, and built it into the standard. That way, HTML5 can do video and much more interactive applications,” said Viarengo.
Where an application can run natively on a device, users may well prefer that to AppBlast when they have a choice.
“Most users, if they have a local application that runs on a device, they will do that rather. That application is a little nippier, the gestures and so on are more native to the device,” said Viarengo.
“I think it will be a combination of the two. There will be local mobile applications that will run natively on these devices,” predicted Viarengo, “and then HTML5 as the common denominator, that you can always default to; if you have that browser, you can access your legacy application through it.”
With AppBlast, VMware aims to make old x86 architecture applications, too costly to rewrite, but required for business, accessible from any device. Some old reports, formatted in tables and too wide to fit on a single screen, may not render perfectly. Similar things may happen with bar charts that are too wide to fit on a single screen with legible axis descriptions. But the concept of giving IT dinosaurs new, mobile life without coding effort will be worth much to many.
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