Application virtualization aims to improve application compatibility and manageability by encapsulating applications from the underlying operating system on which they are executed. A virtualized application is not installed in the traditional sense[1], although it is still executed as if it is.

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An application firewall limits the access which software applications have to the operating system services, and consequently to the internal hardware resources found in a computer, much as a car firewall limits access of heat, or even fire, to the passengers of the vehicle. The reason that application firewalls are needed in today's internet and data-sharing world is that the other types of firewalls in existence do not control the execution of data, only of the flow of data to the computer's processor.

Application Performance Management, or APM, refers to the discipline within systems management that focuses on monitoring and managing the performance and service availability of software applications.

In computing, Desktop Virtualization involves separating the physical location where the PC desktop resides from where the user is accessing the PC. A remotely accessed PC is typically either located at home, at the office, or in a data center. The user is located elsewhere, perhaps traveling, in a hotel room, at an airport, or in a different city. The desktop virtualization approach can be contrasted with a traditional local PC desktop, where the user directly accesses the desktop operating system and all of its peripherals physically (using the local keyboard, mouse and video monitor hardware directly).

A virtual private server (VPS, also referred to as Virtual Dedicated Server or VDS) is a method of partitioning a physical server computer into multiple servers that each has the appearance and capabilities of running on its own dedicated machine. Each virtual server can run its own full-fledged operating system, and each server can be independently rebooted.

WAN optimization products seek to accelerate a broad range of applications accessed by distributed enterprise users via eliminating redundant transmissions, staging data in local caches, compressing and prioritizing data, and streamlining chatty protocols (e.g., CIFS).

WAN Optimization is a superset of WAFS in that it also addresses:

• SSL-encrypted ASP and Intranet applications
• Multimedia e-learning applications
• Component techniques of WAN Optimization include WAFS, CIFS proxy, HTTPS Proxy, media multicasting, Web caching and bandwidth management.
• SSL VPN - An SSL VPN (Secure Sockets Layer virtual private network) is a form of VPN that can be used with a standard Web browser. In contrast to the traditional IPsec (Internet Protocol Security) VPN, an SSL VPN does not require the installation of specialized client software on end users' computers.
• Server Provisioning - virtualizing the workload of a datacenter server – operating system, applications and configuration – and streaming the workload on-demand to physical or virtual servers from the network.
• Enterprise Single Sign-On - Single sign-on (SSO) is a method of access control that enables a user to authenticate once and gain access to the resources of multiple software systems.