It's no secret that many enterprises have resisted migrating to Vista because of concerns over application compatibility. Turns out there's an extremely effective way to solve this problem: application virtualization, which adds "a layer of isolation between the OS and the application."

You can learn more about this solution in an informative white paper: Facilitating Microsoft Windows Vista Migration Through Application Virtualization [PDF link]. Author Coby Gurr of LANDesk explains how this differs from virtual operating systems and helps simplify application deployment as well as OS migration. Here's an excerpt:

Application virtualization solutions such as LANDesk Application Virtualization can create self-contained executables that include their own small user-mode OS kernel, similar to a runtime environment. The executable for this virtualized application typically includes a small virtual registry, a small virtual file system, and other components the application needs to run, allowing it to function independently in isolation from the host OS.

This four-page article, a reprint from Dell Power Solutions, is definitely worth a read for execs and IT managers concerned about the application-specific issues involved in Vista migration.