Virtual environment for server applications, such as web applications

A computer system for virtualizing server applications, the system comprising:

• a processor and memory configured to execute software instructions;
• a monitoring component configured to monitor an application being prepared for virtualization to detect configuration data associated with the application;
• a package creation component configured to create a package for storing configuration data related to the application being prepared for virtualization;
• an application package store configured to store application packages between monitoring of the application being prepared for virtualization and deployment of the virtualized application to one or more target computer systems;
• an application deployment component configured to deploy an application package to a target computer system so that the target computer system can invoke the virtualized application;
• a conflict management component configured to detect configuration data associated with a virtualized application and modify the configuration data to avoid conflicts with other virtual or non-virtual applications configured to run on the target computer system;
• and
• an application execution environment configured to provide a level of indirection between the virtualized application and a host operating system of the target computer system.

A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions for controlling a computer system to deploy and virtualize a server application, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause a processor to perform actions comprising:

• receiving an application package that includes configuration data for a server application to deploy to a target computer;
• detecting configuration data in the received application package that may conflict with other applications running on the target computer;
• setting application installation parameters that will allow the server application to run on the target computer without conflicting with other applications on the target computer;
• configuring the target computer system to run the server application with the set application installation parameters;
• receiving an application execution indication that indicates a request to launch the configured server application;
• and
• loading the application package associated with the received application execution indication and executing the application in a virtual environment.