“Don’t Get Stuck in the IT Past” - Opt for Application Rejuvenation

How metadata corresponds to IT anti-aging and rejuvenation.

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Desktop applications that are installed and executed directly on every individual client machine are known to be very of cumbersome and costly maintenance and of limited reach. Enterprises realize that in order to reduce the application maintenance complexity and costs and to increase the application reach the applications must be installed, handled and accessed from a central server.

There are two main alternatives for achieving a server centered deployment: Virtual Desktop and RIA.

Virtual Desktop deployment enables the enterprise to keep its legacy desktop applications as they are and simply deploy them on high capacity servers equipped with the required virtualization software and enable any client machine to connect and have the desktop application run as if it was installed on the client machine without actually installing it there.

This approach, though costly, is the easiest path to choose. It is almost risk free because the application remains the same and no additional development is required.
Ay, there's the rub: The application can be kept in the technology generation it was last built in and the easy solution of Virtual Desktop, much like the green screen 5250 terminal emulator, lets the application fossilize and become stuck in the past.

Mocha TN5250 for Android provides TN5250 emulation for AS/400 terminal access - Practical but troubling...

I know, I know: “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”. But these days it is quite odd to see information and task workers work on 5250 screens using a terminal emulator. The desktop applications that are today being trapped in a virtual desktop may look reasonable today, but they will look as odd as 5250 screens two and three years from now.

The spoof video below, allegedly created by Microsoft, bashes VMware on being stuck in the past. Their arguments are of a different angle but the gist of the matter is very applicable in regards to virtual desktop based solutions.



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Magic Software with its RIA technology, based on the flexibly of its metadata based engine approach, enables its customers to make the better choice and to evolve their applications to the next technology generation with the minimal conversion effort and risk. Magic Software customers do not need to compromise on a costly deployment and fossilized applications and enjoy the benefits of a lean internet based deployment with a modern desktop user experience.

Virtual Desktop can be somewhat compared to conventional medicine approach to anti-aging for extending life through means of prolonging long age. With this approach one lives longer but in an aging old body. A different approach to anti-aging is of true rejuvenation. Much like the Turritopsis Nutricula, the immortal jellyfish that is able to transform itself from its mature state back into a polyp (immature jellyfish) and then back again into a mature jellyfish.

Turritopsis nutricula, the potentially immortal jellyfish

uniPaaS metadata approach literally stores the application in a metaphysical form, enabling the application true rejuvenation with every new technology generation.

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