Understanding Numecent’s Solution Stack
When discussing how Numecent technologies effectively modernize Windows application management, our products Cloudpaging and Cloudpager are the foundation of our solution stack. While closely related, they represent two distinct parts of Numecent’s platform:
- Cloudpaging: our application container technology (application virtualization), which is how applications are packaged.
- Cloudpager: the first and only cloud-native application container management platform for Windows desktops, which is how application containers – including Cloudpaging, App-V, and MSIX – are delivered and managed at scale.
The above paragraph is for the TLDR audience as the kid’s say. If you want to learn more about Cloudpaging and Cloudpager, keep reading…
Cloudpaging Containers Explained
At the heart of the Numecent product stack lies our Cloudpaging application containers. These containers can encapsulate Windows applications and essentially abstract the applications from the underlying operating system and break them down into “pages”. The Cloudpaging application containers can be dynamically delivered or “paged” to any Windows desktop and of course they can be paged from our cloud native container management platform thus the name Cloudpaging, but we will come back to that.
Like other application container offerings, such as Docker containers, Cloudpaging application containers eliminate challenges such as failed application installs, application conflicts and more.
For example, Cloudpaging application containers transform the application update process making them low risk by always delivering applications consistently and cleanly while providing the ability to rapidly rollback to a previous version if needed. This makes maintaining a performant healthy Windows desktop easy.
Cloudpaging application containers are not simply filter driver-based solutions. Each container has its own dedicated virtual file system. Instead of installing directly into the operating system in the traditional way scattering files across system directories applications are run from in a container sandbox while still behaving like a native local app from the user’s point of view. Cloudpaging application containers feature disposition layers, which are layers of isolation that be applied globally to the entire application of granularly. So granularly in fact that the disposition layer can be set at the file level. These disposition layers include:
Isolated Disposition (Layer 4)
Assets are paged into a container and only visible to the application itself. This can be powerful for use cases such as sensitive legacy applications which you do not wish to expose widely, for runtime and application dependencies when you wish to deliver all required applications together and for dealing with potential application conflicts amongst other use cases.
Integrated Disposition (Layer 3)
Assets are paged into a container and visible to the application itself, as well as the local system and other applications, behaving as if natively installed. This layer is a good starting place. Capturing applications into Layer 3 yields a high rate of compatibility. If conflicts arise, the conflicting components can be set to Layer 4 as needed.
Installed Disposition (Layer 2 or Layer 1)
Both layers are physical dispositions which page assets from the application onto the OS. The difference between them is that Layer 1 puts the files, folders, registry key and registry values on the local system permanently whilst Layer 2 uninstalls the assets upon deactivation of the container. Physical disposition can be useful for handling certain components such as COM+ Component Services which integrate closely with underlying OS. Layer 1 can also be useful for delivering files to the local system as part of the container which you wish to maintain or manage outside of Cloudpaging.
Unlike traditional installers which typically installs applications with system wide visibility exposing files to all users and processes with access to the desktops they live on – Cloudpaging application containers can be encrypted and when assigned to users, only the assigned users will have visibility of the applications and their components. Cloudpaging application containers can also further enhance security with DRM capabilities such as the setting to preventing copying in or out of the container space.
Overall, this packaging approach is designed to reduce the conflicts and regressions that often arise when multiple applications, versions, or plugins coexist on the same machine. Because the application environment is effectively abstracted from the underlying OS, updates can be introduced without rebuilding virtual desktop images, OS rot and desktop skew on physical and virtual desktops can be eliminated and multiple versions of the same application can sit side-by-side where needed. Optional components can also be separated so that only the functionality a user actually touches is delivered initially, with additional features streamed when required.
Cloudpager Explained
Cloud-Native Application Container Management Platform for Windows Desktops
Where Cloudpaging focuses on the application itself, Cloudpager addresses the operational reality of running applications in an enterprise. Cloudpager is the orchestration layer that publishes Cloudpaging containers to users, controls who is entitled to run them, sets license enforcement policies, handles incremental rollouts of application updates, provides comprehensive application usage reporting and more.
In practice, Cloudpager becomes the control plane for the entire application lifecycle. Cloudpager supports Cloudpaging application containers, MSIX containers and even App-V packages. Cloudpager integrates with enterprise identity systems such as Entra ID to align access with groups or roles/personas and can be used in several ways to publish applications to employees. Regardless of how the applications are provided to employees, the Cloudpaging applications containers can be virtualized on-demand as employees launch the applications and the pages are then delivered to the endpoint over HTTPS from the Numecent Cloudpaging CDN for smart optimized delivery. Cloudpager is architected to permit the use of a localized cache as required for those who prefer to pull from a local source.
Workpods: Auto-Deploying Applications Based on User Need
Workpods can be used to provision Cloudpaging application containers dynamically to employees directly on their Windows desktops. Workpods are logical groupings of applications assigned to a security group of users. Workpods can allow with employee roles or personas but also offer the flexibility to align with an organizations preferred assignment logic. By delivering directly to the user’s desktop session, the applications can be consumed directly from the Start Menu, Desktop, or any other way applications are typically used. Workpods provide applications quickly and modernize the end-to-end management of applications.
Storefronts: Providing Self-Service Application Access and Integrations to Third-Party Solutions
Cloudpager Storefronts: Self-Service Application Access
The final option for presenting applications to employees is the Cloudpager Storefront. This is a web storefront that can act like an application catalogue. Administrators can publish applications to employees via the Storefront who can self-serve and add the application containers they want to their desktops at any time.
Intune Storefronts
Cloudpaging application containers can also be published from Cloudpager into Microsoft Intune. Publishing Cloudpaging application containers into Intune enables them to be assigned like any other Windows App (Win32), meaning you can publish them directly to the Company Portal for employee self-service, assign as required to a group of employees or devices and leverage features like dependencies and supercedence if you wish.
By continuing to leverage Cloudpager’s dedicated CDN to deliver the application containers themselves, you can accelerate application delivery for Intune managed applications more than 20x.
App Attach Storefronts
Being able to publish applications into App Attach means you can get the benefit of Cloudpaging application containers such as eliminating application conflicts, handling legacy applications, and clean consistent removals while still utilizing the Azure entitlement process built-in to Azure and features like Log Analytics for telemetry data and reporting.
Both this and the Intune Storefront options are great for maximizing your investment in the Microsoft ecosystem while enhancing the application management experience.
Citrix Storefronts
Cloudpaging application containers can be published to Citrix DaaS by using a Cloudpager Citrix Storefront. This option greatly streamlines the process of publishing Cloudpaging application containers to employees through Citrix Workspaces. Cloudpaging application containers delivered in this way results in reduced image updates in Citrix thanks to the dynamic delivery of applications into brokered Citrix sessions.
Policies: Software Asset Management, Trust Policies, and Automated Configurations
Cloudpager can also be used to apply policies to Cloudpaging application containers including Software Asset Management & Delivery policies to enforce vendor license agreements such as restricting access to an application to a set number of employees, restricting access at the container level to a maximum number of devices per employee or restricting number of concurrent sessions. Policies can also be used for integration and delivery of Cloudpaging applications in platforms such as Citrix DaaS, Microsoft RemoteApp, and more.
Policies can also be used to revoke application access on a certain date or after a certain number of days of inactivity. Administrators can set a policy to page the entirety of the application, effectively caching the entire application when delivered. Policies can be also used for conditional access of applications restricting use to a certain OS version or by device group. PowerShell Script policies can be used to execute PowerShell scripts in user or system context each time Cloudpager initiates an auto-deploy process on a device with the Cloudpager client.
Dashboards and Reports: Real-Time Application Usage Data and Audit Logs
Of course, there is more to Cloudpager. This includes real-time application usage data – which can be reviewed in the Dashboard tab (see above), as well as the Reports tab. From Reports, you can export all the application usage data into a CSV or third-party tools of your choosing.
There are also Audit Logs for all actions taken by Administrators within Cloudpager, Role Based Access Controls to limit what Administrators can do within the platform, and Log Collection to troubleshoot issues from the admin portal. These all provide insights of the health and usage of Cloudpager and Cloudpaging application containers in an organization as well as comprehensive application usage reporting , complemented by capabilities like the ability to force stop or remove a container for a certain user session, categorization of device types and more.
Conclusion: Cloudpaging is the Container. Cloudpager is the Orchestration Mechanism.
To summarize: Cloudpaging is application containerization (virtualization) and Cloudpager is the orchestration mechanism.
Cloudpaging containers are the virtual sandbox your applications are packaged into so they can run on any modern Windows endpoint without sacrificing functionality or performance.
Cloudpager is an intuitive cloud management console that enables you to determine who receives applications from the system, when they update, and how they behave across different environments.
Together, they form a system aimed at replacing heavyweight installation processes and brittle software distribution models with something more dynamic, responsive and modern.
For enterprises modernizing End User Computing estates – whether that means Azure Virtual Desktop, pooled desktops, Windows 365 Cloud PCs, or large fleets of physical laptops – this model offers a way to decouple applications from operating systems and desktop images. Applications can be packaged once, centrally maintained, and rapidly provisioned wherever users sign in, while IT teams regain control over change velocity and risk.
Understanding the differences between Cloudpaging and Cloudpager is the key to understanding the Numecent solution stack and how to achieve truly modern application management.
To see these technologies in action, request a live demonstration with our Technical Solutions team below: