AppSense User Rights Management – BETA launches next week!

You may by now (or at least hopefully) will be aware of the soon to be released and very much anticipated AppSense User Rights Management technology – User Rights Management brings huge opportunity to reduce desktop TCO, improve desktop security & stability, reduce support calls and ensure users have access to the features and applications they require along with optimum user satisfaction.

Well, you will be pleased to know that general release is nearly upon us and for any existing AppSense customers or partners, I would like to invite you to a final public beta – starting Monday 5th July 2010.  Please do get in touch with your local AppSense contact who will register your interest and provide you with all the information and details.

For those not aware of AppSense User Rights Management, I, along with others, have blogged about it:

NEW AppSense Functionality Being Demo’d At Citrix Synergy – “User Rights Management”

Andrew Wood article from PubForum; AppSense User Rights Management & User Installed Applications

As existing AppSense experts, your feedback is very much appreciated.

Stay tuned for more on this topic :)

Thanks

Gaz

AppSense Selected by Fujitsu for Largest VDI Deployment in Europe

AppSense, the leading user virtualization solution provider, partner with Fujitsu to enable a desktop virtualization project for 140,000 users across 1,000 site locations at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

This recent win, combined with our many, many other enterprise accounts and 1 million license sales of our user virtualization solution in 2009 alone, cement AppSense as the clear leaders in the user virtualization/environment/workspace market.

“Fujitsu is pleased to have been selected by DWP to provide the department with the high-quality desktop experience that it is looking for and we believe we have selected the suppliers that will best ensure we accomplish this,” said Chris Corfield, account director, Fujitsu.  “AppSense’s user virtualisation solutions have a proven track record, and we look forward to working with them as we significantly reduce the TCO of the DWP’s desktop estate and provide their end users with a seamless user experience.”

A full copy of the press release can be found below:

AppSense Selected by Fujitsu for Largest Desktop Virtualisation Deployment in Europe

Leader in user virtualisation partners with a leading systems integrator to manage circa 140,000 desktop devices across 1,000 offices in the UK

Daresbury, UK – June 28, 2010 – AppSense (www.appsense.com), the leading provider of user virtualisation solutions, today announced that it has partnered with Fujitsu to provide desktop management solutions to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for more than 1,000 locations in the UK.  Effective on the first of September, the six-year contract involves approximately 140,000 desktop devices, and is one of the largest desktop and thin client outsource deals in Europe.

“Fujitsu is pleased to have been selected by DWP to provide the department with the high-quality desktop experience that it is looking for and we believe we have selected the suppliers that will best ensure we accomplish this,” said Chris Corfield, account director, Fujitsu.  “AppSense’s user virtualisation solutions have a proven track record, and we look forward to working with them as we significantly reduce the TCO of the DWP’s desktop estate and provide their end users with a seamless user experience.”

Fujitsu selected AppSense’s user virtualisation technology to effectively manage user-specific information independent of the desktop.  AppSense Environment Manager will be used to manage the user’s personalisation features and reapply them on-demand at each login.  In addition, Environment Manager will be used to help migrate users to new desktops while ensuring the user experience is seamless.

“Partnering with a leading systems integrator like Fujitsu is a great opportunity for us to continue our growth and serves as a tremendous accolade for our products,” said Tony Clarke, vice president of EMEA at AppSense.  “Our goal at AppSense is to provide a flawless, personal, predictable and easily manageable user environment.  We welcome this partnership with Fujitsu, and look forward to helping provide the key components of a virtualised desktop environment that will result in cost savings and increased control for the end-customer.”

About AppSense’s User Virtualisation Technology

AppSense’s user virtualisation technology delivers personalised corporate desktops without the need for cumbersome profiles or scripts across all delivery platforms – including physical, virtual, streamed, published and off-line.  User virtualisation ensures users always receive a consistent, predictable and personalised working experience.  Full desktops can now be configured and business rules applied on-demand, enabling compliant, personalised desktops to be quickly delivered to thousands of users.

Supporting Resources

For the latest news and information, follow AppSense on the Web at:

• Company Blog
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Supporting Documents

About AppSense

AppSense, the leading provider of user virtualisation solutions for enterprises, makes physical and virtual desktop deployment possible by ensuring a seamless user experience across all delivery platforms.  AppSense accelerates multi-platform desktop deployments by eliminating costly user management tools, enabling single-image application delivery, and ensuring users have the same experience from any desktop.  AppSense technology is used around the world by companies such as JPMorgan Chase, Lowes, United Airlines, Wachovia and ESPN.  AppSense has offices in New York and Palo Alto in the US, London and Manchester in the UK, and additional offices in Munich, Melbourne and Amsterdam.

PR Contact:

Heather Fitzsimmons
Mindshare PR
+1 (650) 947-7400
heather@mindsharepr.com

Another Customer Video – Kaweah using AppSense, Citrix XenApp, XenDesktop and iPads

Kaweah Delta Medical Center, a leading California-based healthcare organization who has been using a combined Citrix and AppSense solution to deliver virtual desktops to their workforce has kindly recorded a video interview to present the challenges faced in the adoption of desktop virtualization, and more importantly how they use a combined Citrix and AppSense solution to deliver personalized desktops to a wide range of accessing devices from a standard set of provisioned operating system and application components.

When users connect to their ‘My Kaweah Desktop’, even from a mobile iPad device, AppSense configure and personalize the virtual Citrix XenDesktop based on the user and device context, meaning the user gets a compliant and personal experience, while IT benefit from standardization of the backend desktop components.

The video is available to watch on YouTube and a PDF case study is also available to download.

Click on the screenshot below to be taken to the video on the AppSense YouTube Channel:

A PDF copy can be downloaded by clicking on the below screenshot:

In addition to Kaweah, we have another video case study available: University of Texas Medical Branch – Citrix XenDesktop & AppSense Customer Video Interview

Hope you enjoy and find useful

Thanks

Gaz

Citrix Webinar TODAY: Solving User Profile Challenges for XenApp and/or XenDesktop

Jo Harder, a Senior Architect in the Citrix Readiness Division is hosting another ‘Profile’ based webinar as part of the Citrix Tech-Talk Expert Webinar Series.

Jo has several years a a lead consultant for Citrix, and so has seen some of the worlds largest and most complex Citrix environments; and from this has learnt typical customer challenges and best practices to avoid or solve such issues.  In this webinar, Jo will be covering the challenges with user profiles in a XenApp and/or XenDesktop environment – specially looking at options available with Roaming profile, where Citrix User Profile Manager can help, where it can not help / is unsupported, and when Citrix recommend a leading 3rd party specialist solution; such as AppSense.

Below is the sample content Jo has put together describing the session:

“User profiles are a critical aspect of any Citrix implementation. They impact the user experience,logon time, and more.  Your user requirements, infrastructure, and Citrix technologies have a bearing on your optimal user profile solution.

In this session, you will learn about:

• Criteria to consider when adding XenDesktop to your existing XenApp environment
• Technical basics regarding how Microsoft, Citrix, & AppSense profiles function
• Implementation considerations
• Sample scenarios”

I strongly recommend that anyone who is either experiencing problems with user profiles, or is considering using both XenDesktop and XenApp together, attends this webinar as I am sure you’ll find it more than worthwhile. :)

The Webinar is scheduled to take place today, 1500hrs – 1600hrs BST

You can register and learn more on the Citrix Webinar Registration Page here

Look forward to seeing you there!

Cheers

Gaz

Virtual Strategy Magazine; How (AppSense) User Virtualization Enables Desktop Virtualization

Simon Rust, VP of Technology at AppSense has written an article for Virtual Strategy Magazine; focusing on how User Virtualization solutions are key to the adoption of desktop virtualization technologies in enterprise environments.

Based on our real world desktop virtualization experience here at AppSense (whereby AppSense sold over 1 million user virtualization licenses in CY 2009 alone, and seeing a 60% increase so far this year) Simon talks about the pro’s and con’s of the various options available to us when looking at desktop virtualization, and how in many cases, none of them are suitable for mass adoption without including some form of user virtualization solution.

You can read the article in full here, or by clicking on the image below

Thanks
Gaz

Andrew Wood article from PubForum; AppSense User Rights Management & User Installed Applications

Following on from the recent PubForum event, Andrew Wood (Twitter @gilwood_cs) has published an interesting article over on The Virtualization Practice relating to some of the new functionality AppSense were demonstrating as part of our 2010 product release schedule.  The article discusses the possibilities and options with regards to ‘can you give power to users responsibly’ ?

At present, we are limited to providing either;
Administrator Accounts or Standard User Accounts
and
The ability to install everything or prevent the installation of anything

For many organizations and users this is not a viable option, certain users require access to controls and applications that require Admin credentials to access or change; however IT do not want users to have access to everything else available to an Administrative user.

Likewise, some users may require the ability to install their own business related applications, or more importantly have their user installed applications made available across desktop delivery mechanisms or persists between non-persistent virtual desktop sessions.

Both of these challenges will be address by AppSense in 2010 in the form of our USer Rights Management and also User Installed Application technologies; both of which were presented and demo’d at PubForum – of which Andrew has detail he thoughts on the use cases, pro’s and con’s of such a solution offering.

You can read his article in full here.

Further information on these technologies can be found here on the AppSense Community Blog:

NEW AppSense Functionality Being Demo’d At Citrix Synergy – “User Rights Management”

What is a user-installed application and why should we care?

User Installed Applications (UIA) by any other name?

Many thanks, and keen to hear your thoughts on our forthcoming products

Cheers

Gaz

Post Citrix Synergy Events; Convergence, AppSense, Citrix

If you were unable to make Citrix Synergy 2010 in San Francisco and can’t wait until Citrix Synergy Berlin, fear not; Leading AppSense and Citrix partner Convergence are hosting a series of post Synergy events!

At the event you will learn all about:

• Citrix XenDesktop 4 updates
• Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager integration with Citrix XenApp 6
• Citrix HDX Nitro Roadmap
• Citrix FlexCast for  Desktop Administration, VDI, Virtualized Applications and Offline Desktops
• Citrix XenServer 5.6 & Microsoft Hyper-V
• Top User Virtualization/Profile Management solution on the market – AppSense
• Why AppSense was named Citrix Ready Solution of the Year
• Citrix XenClient
• Multiple Demo’s and Presentations

The events are being hosted:

Wednesday June 23rd, Pentagon City, VA
Thursday June 24th, Columbia, MD
Thursday July 8th, Charlotte, MC
Friday July 9th, Durham, NC

You can can learn more about each of the events here

Thanks

Gaz

Citrix, CEMA, and AppSense – On The Road WorkShop, In A Citrix Truck

CEMA, a leading Citrix and AppSense reseller in Germany are hosting a ‘Hands On’ workshop, on the road, in a Citrix truck!  The truck comes complete with a mobile data center to give interactive access to Citrix FlexCast and AppSense technology!

There are two ‘pit stops’, one in Hamburg (which due to popular demand is already fully booked, and a second in Frankfurt:

Location
Holiday Inn, Frankfurt
Date
9am – 4pm 30th June 2010

More information can be found here

You can register your place here

We look forward to seeing you there!

Cheers

Gaz

InfoWorld Virtualization Report: AppSense helps Desktop Virtualization Adoption

During the busy days that was the Citrix Synergy in San Francisco, David Marshall from InfoWorld wanted to see what all the fuss about AppSense, our Citrix Ready Solution of the Year award and AppSense User Virtualization Solutions were all about.    David spent time with AppSense VP of Technology – Simon Rust – and has since written an article based on his findings..

“AppSense was recently named the Citrix Ready Solution Partner of the Year. And for good reason. AppSense provides a major benefit, providing maximum user adoption and satisfaction. To find out more about AppSense user virtualization technology and what AppSense is doing in this market, I was able to catch up with AppSense Vice President of Engineering Simon Rust to get the full scoop”

You can read the interview by clicking on the image below:

AppSense (Martin Ingram) Article posted on ComputerWorld: Taming the Laptop

AppSense VP of Strategy Martin Ingram has written an article about mobile computing and the introduction of client hypervisors.  He examines the pro’s and con’s of the client side hypervisor, and the challenges we may be faced with as part of adoption and implementation…

The article can be read here

Thanks

Gaz