Software appliance

This article is about a software with just enough operating system (JeOS) to run on hardware or in a virtual machine. For a hardware device with integrated software (firmware), see computer appliance.

A software appliance is a software application combined with just enough operating system (JeOS) to run optimally on industry-standard hardware (typically a server) or in a virtual machine.[1] It is a software distribution or firmware that implements a computer appliance.[2][3]

Virtual appliances are a subset of software appliances. The main distinction is the packaging format and the specificity of the target platform. A virtual appliance is a virtual machine image designed to run on a specific virtualization platform, while a software appliance is often packaged in more generally applicable image format (e.g., Live CD) that supports installations to physical machines and multiple types of virtual machines.[4][5][6]

Installing a software appliance to a virtual machine and packaging that into an image, creates a virtual appliance.

  1. ^ Congdon, Lee (25 January 2008). "What is a Software Appliance?". Red Hat Blog. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  2. ^ Smith, Bob; Hardin, John A; Phillips, Graham; Pierce, Bill (2007). Linux Appliance Design: A Hands-On Guide to Building Linux Appliances. No Starch Press. pp. xvii. ISBN 978-1-59327-140-4. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
  3. ^ SAN Data Center Archived 2005-05-02 at the Wayback Machine- Network World
  4. ^ "OVF 1.1 Specification" (PDF).
  5. ^ "VirtualBox changelog". Retrieved 2009-04-13.
  6. ^ Wu C F, Wang Y S, Liu G N, Amies, A, 2012, Create solutions on IBM SmartCloud Enterprise: Transfer image assets between different accounts IBM developerWorks, June 6.