AppDNA, the worldwide leader in compatibility testing for application environments, today introduced AppTitude 3.0, the industry’s first application compatibility testing solution that can help organizations learn where is the best place to run an application and why. AppTitude 3.0 delivers this capability via its new “Best Fit” Manager, a powerful component that expands the breadth and depth of application insight and analysis and extends it to more server-related factors. Best Fit Manager provides business benefits that were never before possible, including vastly reducing the time, cost and risks associated with deployment of OS migrations, software upgrades, virtualization and other changes.

With its ability to test for a number of new server-related functions, AppTitude 3.0 provides essential information in a single view on every application across the enterprise regarding Microsoft Server2003 and Server2008 compatibility; compatibility with 64-bit systems; interoperability; dependency; performance; optimal loads for multi-user applications; and suitability for virtualization, including Microsoft App-V (formerly SoftGrid), Citrix XenApp and Windows Terminal Services. It also flags which applications have interoperability and overlap issues for silo and Citrix server farm planning.

"Organizations that rely on the 'push-and-pray' approach to application compatibility testing - in which a few key apps are tested in advance while the remainder are deployed first and only tested when they fail - are doomed to fall behind their goals," said Andi Mann, Research Director at Enterprise Management Associates. "For most organizations, manual application testing, especially for large-scale changes like OS upgrades and desktop virtualization deployments, will never be sufficient. It is painstakingly slow and prohibitively expensive, so change planning ends up being haphazard and incomplete. Tools like AppTitude that bring a measure of automation to application testing hold a lot of promise for organizations that require much greater agility and lower costs."

“AppTitude is helping us to improve the way we test our application portfolio for compatibility issues,” said Jeff Marshall, Head of Technology Operations at King’s College London, one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher 2008) and the fourth oldest in England. “AppDNA’s innovative approach to collecting application ‘DNA’ makes AppTitude a very useful tool for evaluating our virtualization options and future OS changes and upgrades. Gaining insight into the impact of application and OS changes in advance of making those changes will make real planning possible. We look forward to seeing how we can take advantage of the new features in the AppTitude 3.0 release.”

“AppTitude is a missing link in forming Citrix XenApp solutions. It will help us identify applications that will be more complex to integrate as well as offer the correct implementation solution,” commented Nigel Woods, Technical Director of Citrix Platinum Partner Intercept IT. “Adding the other capabilities that AppDNA brings will allow us to make a much more accurate design not only for Citrix XenApp but also Citrix XenDesktop. This approach could help us achieve a far more realistic estimate when quoting for projects and a more timely and structured approach to the implementation and future support.”

“With the new Best Fit capabilities in AppTitude 3.0, we can now provide unprecedented insight into an organization’s application DNA,” said Mike Welling, CEO of AppDNA. “It’s no longer about asking ‘Why did my application break?’ Now testers can get the answers they really need, such as ‘Will it break, where and why?’ and ‘Of all my app delivery options, where is the best fit for this application?’ Thus with the new Best Fit capabilities AppTitude 3.0 provides an even more powerful analytic dashboard for dramatically improving application management and long-term planning.”

“Customers want to mitigate any risk associated with the upgrade of their Microsoft technology environments through rapid and comprehensive insight into their application capability,” said Tom Norton, global practice lead, Microsoft Services, HP. “The combination of HP’s experience in helping customers with their Microsoft Vista migrations and the enhancements AppDNA has built into this new release of AppTitude allow us to quickly and cost-effectively help our customers manage their applications and determine where those applications fit best in a variety of possible environments.”

What’s New in AppTitude 3.0

The new product components of 3.0 include:

• Best Fit Manager – The “Best Fit” Manager is itself comprised of four new products: Server Compatibility Manager, Quality Manager, Virtualization Manager for Citrix XenApp and Virtualization Manager (see below). Best Fit Manager helps organizations understand where is the best place to run an application by providing a report that includes application compatibility with: Windows Server 2003 and 2008; 64 bit; Microsoft App-V (formerly SoftGrid); Citrix XenApp and Windows Terminal Services. This revolutionary new approach IT answer questions such as: “I need to introduce a new application to my environment – where should I put it? How do we rationalize and optimize our existing infrastructure? Can I swap my 32-bit servers for 64-bit servers? Where should I consider Terminal Services and where should I use Virtualization? Which applications will work together on a single server? How do we best fit the applications to the hardware?”
• Server Compatibility Manager – AppTitude now has the ability to test applications for compatibility with Windows® Server 2003 and Server 2008 operating systems. Also embedded in the compatibility checks is the ability to test applications for compatibility with 64-bit systems. (64-bit checks already were supported in AppTitude’s Desktop Compatibility Manager, which performs application compatibility checking for XP and Vista.)

• Quality Manager – The Quality Manager enables Windows installer-based checking for interoperability of applications. This makes it simple and easy to learn in advance what the impact will be of uninstalling, upgrading or repairing an application.
• AppTitude™ Virtualization Manager for Citrix XenApp™ – The new AppTitude Virtualization Manager for Citrix XenApp allows organizations to check for application compatibility with Windows Terminal Services and Citrix XenApp. In addition, it can test for application compatibility with Citrix XenApp versions 3.0 through 5.0. Included in the Citrix XenApp Manager are two types of analysis – static and run-time – and also supports overlap analysis showing whether or not a particular application can be installed on a given server. It checks for shared resources for file and registry keys. With these new capabilities the product is a highly effective new tool for silo planning and Citrix server farm planning and management.
• OS Snapshot Import – This new feature enables customers to import a snapshot of their own OS into AppTitude and then run the compatibility checks, enabling AppTitude to test against any OS customizations they have made rather than vanilla versions.

Pricing and Availability

AppTitude 3.0 for Windows platforms is available immediately from AppDNA. The AppTitude Virtualization Manager for Citrix XenApp is currently in its beta test phase, with general availability in January. AppTitude pricing varies based on configuration, ranging from $5,000 for a typical pilot installation to a starting range of $50,000 for enterprise-wide deployments.