Legacy* applications and servers pose significant challenges to organisations across the world. Often legacy apps are unsupported, insecure, and require older operating systems to run, which in turn may be unsupported and have their own vulnerabilities.

*By legacy we mean that they are based on outdated technologies but are still critical to day-to-day operations.

A prime example of this is the NHS which has numerous legacy apps, and even though Windows 7 went end of life on January 14 2020, they still had it installed on around half a million desktops several months later.

Obviously having these risks is far from ideal, but it also causes a real headache if you want to achieve compliance with programmes like Cyber Essentials, Cyber Essentials Plus and NIST.

Containerising legacy applications protects them from security threats which helps you achieve compliance and delivers significant cost savings when it comes to deploying apps, not only in acquisition, but also in management costs and lower infrastructure overheads.

Droplet Containers

Droplet Computing have designed a software-based container solution that works by taking your applications and installing them inside a containerised environment. In turn, this containerised environment is delivered to a Windows, Mac, or Linux device. Once delivered the container can run either online or offline, delivering a semi-connected solution.

Your legacy applications can simply be installed directly into the Droplet Computing container unchanged, and then delivered using the application delivery mechanism you use currently, including virtual desktop technologies such as Microsoft WVD, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and VMware Horizon View. There is no need to refactor, package, sequence, or virtualize the applications to make them work.

Security

For maximum security for legacy client and server applications, Droplet Computing wraps a protective bubble around both the end-user applications and the tools used by administrators to manage the container. The key word here is isolation. The container runs as an app and runs the container abstracted from the host devices underlying operating system, in a similar way that an OS is abstracted from the hardware in a virtual machine environment using a hypervisor. This means that the container has no dependencies on that underlying OS and talks directly to the hardware. If the device OS becomes compromised or is attacked, (which should not happen as you would have deployed end point protection), there is no way that the container can be accessed.

Server Containers

Droplet Server Containers secure legacy Windows NT, 2003, 2008 and 2012 operating systems by adding a security bubble around the operating system that is only accessible by their client-side container. All the data in flight between the two is encrypted to prevent man in the middle attacks.

If you have applications which will only run on one of these end-of-life operating systems, then Droplet Server Containers enable you to continue running them whilst protecting them from security threats.

Droplet Server Container is supported on VMware vSphere (including VMware Cloud on AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

Open Reality and BrightCloud

Open Reality and BrightCloud are Droplet Partners with Open Reality able to resell the Droplet licensing and BrightCloud Consultants and Engineers trained to deliver and support Droplet solutions.