Altiris Software Virtualization Solution (SVS) provides business value to customers in a variety of different ways. Business value is provided through conflict elimination, reduced packaging time, ease of deployment, packaging legacy or proprietary applications, and by reducing help desk calls. In many cases, a single problem application is enough to justify the purchase of SVS. The focus of this article is where SVS is beneficial Software Management Lifecycle. In the Software Management Lifecycle, there are a variety of areas that can be identified to obtain a Return on Investment (ROI).

The Software Management Lifecycle is the process of managing an application from beginning (creating the application) to end (removing the application). This process consists of the 5 phases shown in the diagram below. SVS allows companies to save money in each of these phases:

1. Prepare: SVS reduces the effort and time for building application packages and conflict testing.
2. Deploy: SVS minimizes disruption to end users.
3. Manage & Support: SVS allows applications to run conflict free and to easily be restored to a known good state.
4. Patch & Upgrade: SVS reduces test time for major upgrades. Two application versions can run side-by-side until the old one can be phased out.
5. Retire: Allows instant deactivation of application leaving no problems left behind because the base OS is not touched.

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Phase 1: Prepare

In the preparation phase, the creation of application packages and testing is carried out. Building and testing packages can typically take days or even weeks to complete. SVS alone will drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to build application packages in part because of the conflict elimination capabilities. If your company is spending a significant amount of time performing conflict testing then SVS will be a huge benefit in the testing phase. With the SVS integration and Wise Package Studio, the efforts of creating and packaging applications can be reduced even further.

One of the major benefits of SVS is that it helps to reduce the time and effort that goes into performing conflict testing, because it totally eliminates any software conflicts. Note that SVS eliminates most testing but not all types of testing. The packager should still ensure that the application will deploy and load correctly.

Based on data from partners, a typical package takes about 10 hours to create and test. It is estimated that SVS will reduce packaging times by an average of 60%, which is quicker than any other competitor. Remember, these numbers are just a starting point. All of these calculations can vary from application to application and company to company depending on what processes are followed.

Phase 2: Deploy / Delivery

In the deployment phase, applications are delivered to end user machines and installed. In the past this has been through a traditional software delivery method where the application package is copied to the end user machine and then executed. The end-user or administrator would then have to wait until the installation finishes. With SVS Professional, there is no deployment or installation time as applications are made available to the end-user instantly through streaming. The only thing that is sent to the target machine is an icon.

SVS benefits users by minimizing the disruption to an end-user's work. Virtualized applications are delivered without modifying Windows, interfering with pre-existing applications, and no reboot is required on the client. Additionally, no system rights are required by the user for the "install" and required services are spun up when the application is activated.

In this calculation, we are assuming that the average time per disruption is 5 minutes, but only 10% of that time is actually affecting the end-user. Note that this is a soft cost, so it not typically included in an ROI calculation, but it is important to be aware of these savings when looking at total savings.

Phase 3: Manage & Support

In the management and support phase, the help desk responds to customer calls regarding and application and fixing application related problems. Since applications run conflict free, the number of support calls is drastically reduced. When problems do arise, they are quickly fixed with a simple reset of the application, and the baseline is maintained.

For many companies, this will be a primary source of ROI. The details of this section were covered in Part 1 of this article. The results of this phase demonstrated a typical company's savings of $299,767.21 in hard support cost savings and a soft savings of $217,854.66 in reduced end-user downtime for a total savings of $517,621.87 annually.

Phase 4: Patch & Upgrade

The patching and upgrade phase involves applying patches, updates, and major upgrades to a keep an application version current. SVS benefits customers by reducing testing time for major upgrades. In the event that an application is damaged, SVS has the ability to instantly reset or rollback applications. This reset will not damage other applications.

In this calculation, we are assuming that with 350 applications, there will be 1 patch or upgrade every 6 months. Keep in mind that with some applications, patches or upgrades may need to be applied monthly, weekly, or even daily. Similar to the prepare phase, SVS reduces the building and testing time by approximately 60%.

Phase 5: Retire

The retirement phase involves uninstalling or removing applications from target machines. Almost every system administrator can relate to problems uninstalling applications. SVS benefits companies by allowing instant deactivation, which will cause no impact on other applications because the base operating system has not been touched and nothing of the application will be left behind.

One strategy that may be used is by allowing both the old and new versions of applications to run side-by-side. This reduces user disruption during the transition to a new application. If old version was conventionally installed, you can prevent uninstall from damaging new version deployed virtually.

Note that the reduction in end-user downtime is a soft cost that is generally not included in an ROI calculation but it is important to be aware of.

Conclusion

Once again, the numbers used in Part 1 and 2 of these articles are rough estimates and are intended to be more of a guideline than a rule for building your own ROI case for SVS. From the scenarios mentioned above, SVS could save $573,180 annually plus an additional $517,621 from Part 1 of this article for a total of $1,090,801 annually. This is a similar result to what US Foods experienced. http://www.symantec.com/community/sites/default/fi...

Remember that calculating ROI from SVS does not have to be specific to these scenarios. For example, one Altiris customer estimated the cost of replacing a home grown legacy application at $750,000. By implementing SVS they were able to defer this cost indefinitely, since they can continue to run the older application on their newer technology. - An instant ROI.