I had a chance to catch up with Liquidware Labs this week to discuss their new “Micro Isolation” feature in their FlexApp Layering solution. Just the name, Micro Isolation, had me intrigued.
The new exclusive technology from Liquidware Labs solves the issue with layering regarding how applications within the layers interact with each other and the host operating system. To date layering solutions have had hit and miss packaging when it comes to applications that may have conflicts, such as trying to use the same .dll file and location or registry conflicts.
To get around this a few of the layering vendors have been suggesting that you package applications with conflicts into the same layer so that the applications are packaged together and are therefore more “aware” of one another. Of course you never really know if you have a conflict until you’ve first found the problem. Citrix has AppDNA which, among many other things it does, can help find these conflicts and make you aware of them. However, wouldn’t it be nice if layering solutions would just handle this automatically?
FlexApp answers the industry challenge with its new Micro Isolation feature. Liquidware Labs is a leader in Application Layering, having built the FlexApp from the ground up, first introducing the solution in 2011. FlexApp v6.5.1. adds Windows 10 support and architecture optimizations but let’s look more closely into Micro Isolation since that’s the innovative piece.
Tuesday, January 26. 2016
FlexApp Micro Isolation Layering from Liquidware Labs is Big Stuff
Liquidware Labs released an initial blog discussing the importance of Micro Isolation here. Digging into the architecture a bit, I discovered that FlexApp leverages a Filter Driver architecture. Embedded in the new release was a change that added a new “Rules Engine” alongside the core Filter driver architecture. After further analysis the Micro Isolation feature as part of the new Rules Engine, is poised to address the application file and registry conflict challenge that I referenced earlier. For example, when an application within “Layer 1” attempts to access shared file, registry or DLL components on the host operating system, the corresponding launch will be successful. Subsequently, if an application within “Layer 2” attempts to access the same shared file, registry or DLL component on the host operating (at the same time), the corresponding launch will fail. Micro Isolation, as part of the new Rules Engine architecture, is actively monitoring launch requests. As a conflict like the one described above is about to occur, the Rules Engine/Micro Isolation will automatically redirect the applications within “Layer 1” and “Layer 2” to the file, registry or DLL component needed inside of its own layer. In simple terms, Micro Isolation appears to be a traffic cop, redirecting the layers to resources in its own corresponding layer first. Don’t be confused, this technology is not ended to provide full isolation to run multiple versions of the same app like Microsoft App-V or VMware ThinApp. FlexApp’s Micro Isolation is intended to streamline the packaging and playback of applications layered into an environment.
The ability to avoid application conflicts in real-time seems incredibly ground breaking at this point. The technology avoids the hit and miss approach to application packaging by avoiding the requirement to stack conflicting applications into one layer. The technology is fully automatic and does it magic behind the scenes, letting you focus on more important things than sorting out application conflicts by trial and error.
I look forward to all of the innovations coming out of the application layering space, in particular those from Liquidware Labs and FlexApp Layering. FlexApp is readily available for trial at www.LiquidwareLabs.com.
