Breaking the bottleneck
CEO Uri Raz explains how AppStream is bridging server- and client-centric computing models
ONE OF THE fundamental propositions of Web services is that applications will be manifested as a set of more discrete components. Today that model flies in the face of the monolithic packaged applications that dominate the enterprise. One vendor that has come up with a way for packaged application to function like a more discrete set of components is AppStream. In an interview with InfoWorld Editor in Chief Michael Vizard, AppStream CEO Uri Raz explains how his company’s application server is helping companies such as Citibank and Bank of America to bridge server- and client-centric computing models by streaming applications to clients.
InfoWorld: What drives the need for AppStream?
InfoWorld: What does the AppStream server allow IT organizations to do?
Raz: We actually intercept the graphical user interface component of an application. IT managers can make [the] decision to cache a component on the client side. So when a component arrives into the background of your activity, it’s cached on the hard disk. The next time … it fires out the application immediately. What the server does in this case is just keep version management to track relevant component changes. There is [a] predictive engine and we begin to move the rest of the components. So the scalability becomes enormous. And we give you centralized management control of the application on the server. But we can also provide the rich user experience. It makes the application organic.
InfoWorld: Why is your approach relevant today?
Raz: We can help people with the deployment. Every one of the Fortune 2000 invests hundreds of millions of dollars in deployment. People are trying to see how 10 applications will live peacefully in the same desktop. They invest tons of money. So the pain in the market is very clear to us.
InfoWorld: Is this capability specific to just Java and Windows, or can it be used with legacy applications?
Raz: We can take the Cobol application, componentize them in our way, and help to distribute [them] to the desktop. We say that we actually give the quality of Web services, component-based computing delivery without the need to invest [in] rewriting the application.
InfoWorld: How will Web services integrate with your offering?
Raz: These are protocols that we wrap and support as a mechanism of talking between components. We also take a component and actually distribute [it] server to server so you don’t need a lot of network performance.
InfoWorld: What does it take to deploy AppStream?
Raz: We don’t need more than a half day. You need to copy the application in our server. You don’t need a dedicated server. We can use your application server and your Web server.
