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What is the difference between App-V, VDI, and MED-V? They're all virtualization technologies of one kind or another, but how are they different?

MDMarra
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Remus Rigo
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    how can i mark this question as a wiki? i don't remember the right tag.. – Remus Rigo Jan 24 '13 at 22:56
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    Questions can't be marked as community wiki by normal users any more, they get marked by mods or once the question is edited 10 times. – tombull89 Jan 24 '13 at 23:08
  • App-V, as I understand it, is basically the program running from a server and being "streamed" to the local machine. VDI is users using remote desktop connection (or similar) to access virtual machines running on a server. I've never heard of Med-V. – tombull89 Jan 24 '13 at 23:10
  • @tombull89 MED-V ~ Microsoft Desktop Enterprise Virtualization – Remus Rigo Jan 24 '13 at 23:12
  • sometimes i get confused when to use them – Remus Rigo Jan 24 '13 at 23:13
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    I edited your question, since asking "what is your experience with _____" will get it closed very quickly. – MDMarra Jan 25 '13 at 00:20

2 Answers2

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App-V "streams" an application from a server to a client. The processing and resource usage happens on the client. This is basically the reverse of RemoteApp, if you're familiar with Remote Desktop Services.

VDI is when you present virtual machines to each of your users that they normally access through a thin client and RDP. They get virtual desktops that are typically spawned from the same base image, so that updating and configuration across the desktop fleet only happens once. It also removes the need for desktop hardware upgrades. You just need to keep your virtualization backend up to snuff, not a whole fleet of client PCs.

MED-V basically adds a management layer on top of the Virtual PC based XP Mode. It allows for full desktop virtualization of XP on a later OS for legacy application compatibility. MED-V allows for easier management of these per-desktop VMs.

As you can see, they're all very different things that solve different problems.

MDMarra
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This a very good question. They all have target scenarios and you may find the following helpful.

Yung Chou
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