“Using App-V helps us keep computers pristine. Virtualized applications are deleted from cache, and no trails are left behind. Computers are much more stable.” Christopher Minaugh, System Engineer, User-Centric Solutions, Dell As one of the world’s leading computer manufacturers, Dell is committed to technology excellence. To help ensure that the applications its own employees depend on run reliably, Dell uses Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) technology, which eliminates application-to-application conflicts and keeps operating systems clean. Application deployments are now faster, desktop PCs are much more stable, and user productivity is greatly enhanced. Business Needs Based in Round Rock, Texas, Dell is a Fortune 500 company that offers hard- ware, software, consulting, support, and managed services. The Dell IT Group supports about 2,000 applications and 120,000 desktop computers for the company’s employees. During the 30-month life of each client computer, users install and uninstall many applications, and the IT Group was chal- lenged by application-to-application compatibility and computer reliability issues. “We had computers that were less stable and harder to troubleshoot,” says Donnie Taylor, Team Lead for Systems Management and User-Centric Solutions in the IT Group at Dell. Fixing a computer often required reimaging, which took about one-and-a-half hours. Users typically did reimaging themselves, inter- rupting worker productivity. To help ensure that installed applications would run reliably, Dell conducted regres- sion testing, which required setting up a test environment and installing the appli- cations—a process that could take a week. And because different applications require different versions of Sun Microsystems Java—which could not be installed on the same computer without conflicting—Dell IT staff had to do workarounds to run the applications. “We might install one on the desktop computer and put the other on a Citrix Systems terminal server. The Dell Citrix team would provision that application, which could take a week,” Taylor notes. While some users pulled applications from a portal site supplied by Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, Dell preferred to push applications so that they would be readily available to users. But the IT group had to implement whatever pushes it did slowly—taking two weeks to several months—to ensure that desktops were not destabilized by new installations. Dell wanted to simplify application deployments and enhance desktop reliability. Solution Dell believed that application virtualization could address its challenges, and it chose Microsoft Application Virtualization (App- V) technology. “We’re a big System Center Configuration Manager user, and the fact that App-V interoperates with it—without additional infrastructure—was a plus,” says Christopher Minaugh, System Engineer for User-Centric Solutions in the Dell IT Group. “App-V is part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), which also includes Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM). We wanted to use AGPM to more effectively manage changes to Group Policy.” Dell began Customer: Dell Website: www.dell.com Customer Size: 100,000 employees Country or Region: United States Industry: Manufacturing—High tech and electronics Partner: Dell Packaging Factory Customer Profile Dell is one of the world’s leading computer manufacturers. Based in Round Rock, Texas, Dell employs more than 100,000 team members globally. Software and Services Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack Microsoft Office − Microsoft Office Professional 2007 − Microsoft Office Professional 2010 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio − Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Technologies − Microsoft Application Virtualization − Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management Windows 7 Enterprise For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: www.microsoft.com/casestudies Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack Customer Solution Case Study Dell Improves Application Deployments, Boosts Reliability, by Using Virtualization