VMware to retain standalone ThinApp product

VMware has reversed its plans to bundle the ThinApp thin provisioning technology into its desktop virtualisation suites and will continue to offer it as a separate, stand-alone product, the company said today.

In March this year, VMware told customers that it would bundle ThinApp licensing into the Horizon Suite of desktop virtualisation tools and cease to provide it on its own from December this year.

Following customer feedback however, the company has now officially said ThinApp will remain a standalone product as well as being part of the Horizon Suite bundle. 

ThinApp isolates applications from each other and the underlying operating system for easier application delivery and management, in a so-called thin provisioning scenario without software agents installed on client PCs.

This allows for migration of legacy and user-requested applications in a secure manner and without version conflicts, the company said.

VMware also said it is readying the release of ThinApp version 5.0 that offers support for 64-bit applications thanks to moving virtualisation to a lower layer in the operating system. More specifically, ThinApp 5.0 will be able to run Microsoft Office 2013 and the Internet Explorer 10 web browser.

ThinApp 5.0 will also have better application compatibility in general, VMware says, along with improved policy management and personalisation settings.