As Windows XP end of support approaches, Windows 7 migration urgency is rising for IT teams everywhere. As the pressure mounts, there is a temptation among IT pros to kick into “brute force mode,” characterized by a desire to get the project done as quickly as possible by whatever means necessary.
As we engage with customers on Windows 7 migration projects, our first piece of advice is that a strategic approach centered around user virtualization will both accelerate the actual move to Windows 7 and realize other key benefits such as:
Lower OS management cost through image standardization and more granular user rights management.
Seamless roaming between native PCs and new application and desktop virtualization approaches – either as part of the migration or whenever the time is right.
Enabling user environment portability – rather then performing a one-way migration – to establish a frictionless path to Windows 8 or whatever else comes along.
This last point has been more theoretical than practical…until today. Take a look at this quick video that my colleague Jon Wallace put together. Mere hours after the first developer preview of Windows 8 became available, you are already able to see user personalization applied on-demand as a user roams between Windows 7 and Windows 8:
Obviously, there is a fair bit of work remaining (by both us and Microsoft) before we will claim production-ready Windows 8 support. However, you can see the power that comes from decoupling the user from the underlying operating system and applications. Migration is replaced by enablement, and enablement becomes very easy.
Doug Lane
Director of Product Marketing
Update: Oh, by the way, it works between Windows XP and Windows 8 too:
As User Virtualization continues to play an increasingly important role in desktop strategy and AppSense are experiencing record growth, the 451 Group – a leading technology-industry and data company focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation – has published a Market Development report detailing AppSense continued success, growth and future plans; Grooming itself for an IPO, AppSense flirts with many partners.
The report covers, amongst other things:
$70 million investment from Goldman Sachs for a minority share in AppSense
Expanding the management team with the recruitment of world leading executives
Cisco validation for new Virtual Experience Infrastructure
User Virtualization is bigger than VDI; spanning physical desktops, remote desktop services and cloud and desktop virtualization
User Virtualization is bigger than Profile Management; working across OS platforms, Application delivery mechanisms, 32 & 64-bit architectures, user rights management, dynamic policy, self-healing etc..
Other key points include:
AppSense positioned as a platform player in its own right;
“User virtualization, in other words, is the extra layer of abstraction that allows OS and application virtualization to realize their true potential.”
“So potent is AppSense’s value proposition that Citrix routinely calls it in to help with large deals, and Microsofthas promoted the company to Managed ISV Partner status, a category that fewer than 5% of Microsoft partners achieve.”
This further validates the requirement for User Virtualization solutions in enterprise environments and part of any Desktop Transformation project, and confirms AppSense world leadership position in the space.
In a recent blog – Microsoft & AppSense Video Interview – Why Microsoft see AppSense as key to Windows 7 & App-V adoption - I provided an overview of a recent video interview with Microsoft regarding their views on the importance of AppSense User Virtualization as part of your Windows 7 migration strategy, today I would like to invite you to a webinar with Microsoft and The Co-operative Group (the world’s largest consumer owned business) on why they advocate the use of AppSense User Virtualization to reduce Windows 7 migration costs.
Time & Date: Thursday July 7th, 3pm – 4pm (BST)
Agenda
AppSense - Find out how AppSense UV enables organisations to migrate to Windows 7 quicker, with less effort and more cost effectively. Understand how virtualizing the user first ensures a consistent and predictable user experience no matter what the device, delivery method or application and how you’ll never need to migrate users again.
Microsoft - Understand how Microsoft is working with AppSense and sees User Virtualization as part of the Microsoft optimized desktop vision.
The Co-operative Group - The UK’s largest mutual business, describe their experiences implementing UV before migrating to Win 7 and why they recommend it.
AppSense - The UV platform and expected ROI followed by a demo on moving a user from Windows XP to Windows 7.
Together Microsoft and AppSense have help many enterprise organization transform their existing, static Windows XP and Vista desktops in to dynamic, optimized desktops through a joint solution of Windows 7, App-V and Microsoft virtualization technologies, all underpinned with a User Virtualization solution from AppSense. User Virtualization is enabling organizations to take advantages of the benefits of Windows 7 in terms of security, performance and user experience and App-V for centralizing application management and reducing operational cost.
To help educate enterprise organizations on the importance of including AppSense User Virtualization as part of your desktop transformation project, Microsoft have teamed up with AppSense to create and publish a short video interview and demo to cover the benefits of the joint solution and also the close Microsoft & AppSense relationship. In the video, Microsoft explain how:
“AppSense User Virtualization technology enables organizations to deploy Windows 7 quicker, and with less effort.”
“User Virtualization helps organizations deliver a more predictable and consistent user experience, no matter what hardware or delivery mechanisms they chose to use.”
“Moving to App-V is easier when using AppSense User Virtualization Technology.”
You can view the video by clicking on the screenshot below:
Thank you to both David Overton (Microsoft) and David Shepherd (AppSense) for taking the time to film the video.
Another supporting quote from Microsoft on the importance of User Virtualization as part of your Windows 7 or App-V strategy:
“AppSense is a leading provider of user virtualization technology to enterprise organizations. The combination of AppSense with our Desktop Virtualization technologies, such as App-V or VDI Suites, can enable customers to move to Windows 7 and App-V even more quickly without user disruption.”
Karri Alexion-Tiernan, Director of product management for desktop virtualization at Microsoft.
A number of supporting documents including; User Virtualization for Microsoft desktops, User Virtualization and Windows 7, and a piece by Harry Labana, AppSense CTO – The Migration Equation: making sense of the move to Windows 7, can all be accessed here.
In addition to Microsoft acknowledging the importance of AppSense User Virtualization as s strategic part of the Microsoft Optimized Desktop Vision, this can be seen in the following AppSense and Microsoft Case Studies:
“By taking the AppSense User Virtualization approach, we expect to migrate up to three times as many desktops per day using the same level of IT resource. And more importantly, we anticipate no disruption to our staff. Our investment in AppSense User Virtualization will continue to pay dividends, so when we migrate to Windows 8 having already virtualized our users, we will continue to receive the same or improved benefits in terms of speed, reduced cost and complexity and a better user experience” Ian Cawson, Technical Architect at The Co-operative Group.
“AppSense User Virtualization delivered the exact solution we needed to confidently migrate to Windows 7 without affecting the user experience. What AppSense has provided us with is a pain-free end-user migration, additionally it future-proofs our design.” Jake Muszynski, Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Hope this helps with your thoughts and strategy planning for your desktop transformation projects to move to the Microsoft Optimized desktop with Windows 7 and App-V technologies.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital, with over 10,000 users and ranked in the US News & World Reports 2010 ‘America’s Best Children’s Hospitals’ has selected AppSense User Virtualization over other methodologies to enable their migration to and the adoption of a Windows 7 Citrix XenDesktop environment.
The Hospital first saw AppSense technology while attending a joint webinar with Citrix XenDesktop and chose AppSense User Virtualization for many reasons including:
“AppSense user virtualization technology delivered the exact solution we needed to confidently migrate to virtual desktops without affecting the user experience.”
“We selected AppSense because it was a comprehensive product that featured everything we needed to fix the problems we were having, including application configuration and effectively managing access to applications for roaming workstations.”
“What we quickly began to realize is that AppSense future-proofs our design, allowing us to accommodate our users’ needs as they arise.”
“AppSense has provided us with is a pain-free end-user migration to virtual desktops, and it is delivering the customization of applications like Microsoft Office to give users the feeling of having the same exact desktop every time”
“With over 10,000 users and 8,000 endpoints, security is crucial to our desktop environment.Without AppSense, we would have needed to apply our most restrictive policies from all locations, which would have been extremely disruptive to our end users.”
As a Citrix Ready Leadership partner and “recommended solution for advanced user personalization and desktop configuration requirements in enterprise environments”, AppSense User Virtualization and Citrix XenDesktop is fast becoming the defacto desktop solution in health care organizations around the world. You can learn more about other leading hospitals that have chosen a combined Citrix and AppSense solution here:
Blogger and analyst Brian Madden’s annual virtualization geekfest returns to Europe next week (10-11 May) at the Chelsea Football Club in London, and as with all community events, AppSense is proud to be an event sponsor along with Citrix and Intel. The AppSense team will be turning out in a big way to take in and contribute to the jam-packed agenda of great virtualization community content.
We’ll dive right into the deep end on Tuesday as AppSense’s Benny Tritsch will put his independent community hat on (not AppSense hat) and join respected independent consultant Shawn Bass to reprise their popular session “RDP, RemoteFX, ICA/HDX, EOP and PCoIP VDI: Remoting Protocols Turned Inside Out.” If the past is any indication, this will likely be one of the most attended and discussed sessions at the event as two of the sharpest guys in the space drill into how graphics and media remoting works and do a head-to-head comparison of the most popular protocols.
Later on Tuesday, our newly appointed VP and CTO Harry Labanaand Brian Madden will team up for the other must-see session of the day, “The Future Desktop: What Should it Do and What Should it Look Like?” There is no shortage of new desktop and application delivery approaches these days, and there are even more views and opinions on what is on offer and what best suits specific use cases. Wondering where is it all going and to what degree will IT teams be able to rise to the occasion? You can bet that Harry and Brian will each have some insightful and provocative perspectives, and that neither will hold back from speaking their mind.
On Wednesday, Brian will join AppSense technical minds Benny Tritsch, Simon Townsend, and David Shepherd, as well as highly respected Citrix CTP Pierre Marmignon, owner of www.CitrixTools.net and the free (and controversial) Virtual User Environment Manager solution, fora roundtable discussion on the state of User Virtualization. This all-star group will cover the key elements of User Virtualization, the types of solutions available, and how it is being applied in practice today.
AppSense’s Jon Wallace, like Benny Tritsch, will be wearing his non-AppSense, independent hat when he delivers his session ”Mandatory and Default User Profile Tuning.” A recognized expert on the Windows registry and user profile architecture and author of www.InsideTheRegistry.com, Jon will demonstrate a practical collection of tips and tricks for optimizing log-on speed and usability when using mandatory and default user profiles. These tips are useful regardless of whether AppSense products are being used, so it’s a great opportunity for attendees to tap AppSense’s unmatched Windows profile knowledge.
As an event sponsor, AppSense will also sponsor the Geek Out Game Show, along with Citrix and Intel, on Tuesday at 5:35pm to 6:35pm
Throughout week, the AppSense team will also be manning the Demo Lab, so if you are attending BriForum Europe, be sure to stop by to say hello. It should be a great week!
Just a quick note to say thank you to all of the AppSense IT Staff who helped make our recent Manhattan office move a smooth and seamless process.
IT are often the unsung heroes within an organization, as for the most part they sit silently ensuring systems and processes run smoothly and any changes or upgrades are hidden from the user – in fact, we often only think of or contact the IT department when we as a user want something specific.. so in this case, thank you guys – you did a great job in moving all of our systems!
For those who were not aware, AppSense relocated our US Headquarters in Manhattan (as detailed in this previous blog ) - the new address is:
AppSense Inc
17 State Street, 19th Floor
Manhattan
New York
10004
The new office is much bigger and has some great facilities, including this, the view from the office window everyday - we now get to watch the sun set over Liberty Island from the southern most building in the Manhattan Financial District!
Thanks again guys.. and thank you to AppSense for the lovely new office :)
Like 2009, and 2008 and the many years before it, 2010 was another great year for AppSense; resulting in another record growth in revenue, headcount, market share and profit. AppSense finished 2010 with a 60% increase in revenue and 43% increase in headcount on 2009.
2010 saw user virtualization go from strength to strength, with analysts, vendors and customers all recognizing the need for enterprise management of the user component of the desktop and AppSense continued market leadership with the sale of 1.5million user licenses and multiple $million deals in the 12 month period alone. With recommendations from the likes of Citrix, Microsoft and VMware, and being part of offerings by system integrators such as CSC, Dell, IBM, HP and Fujitsu, 2011 looks set to be even bigger.
Driving the continued growth in 2011 is the newly appointed CEO of AppSense, Darron Antill. Darron was instrumental in our success in 2010 as COO, and as CEO in 2011, we expect more great things to be happening in the User Virtualization Market.
An official press release on the appointment of Darron Antill and 2010 success can be found on the AppSense news pages here.
Thanks to all our friends, partners, customers and employees who made 2010 a great year! look forward to working with you all even more in 2011.
AppSense has further enhanced our world leading ‘User Virtualization solution, adding the much awaited User Rights Management functionality. Doug Brown has posted a Radio Podcast interview, details below:
In episode 141, Douglas Brown interviews Simon Rust, Vice President of Technology at AppSense. Simon and Doug discuss new AppSense User Rights Management technology available now as part of AppSense Application Manager 8.1. Simon does a great job explaining what is it, how it works, what is takes to install, why we should care, and much more.
User rights management benefits users by:
Elevating user privileges for running applications – by specifying applications to run with administrative privileges. This enables the user to be removed from the local administrators group, thus removing the risk of all applications executing under the administrative user context.
Organizing user rights for running control panel applets – by allowing a standard user to make the required changes and complete their job tasks without running as a local administrator. This is extremely useful when users need to change printer, wireless network, time and date settings, etc.
Prioritizing user rights to restrict application rights – by enabling system administrators to set and enforce policy for specific applications so that the user runs as an administrator but other applications are forced to run as a standard user, ensuring security is not compromised.
Managing access to system settings – by permitting system administrators to prevent admin level users from changing configuration settings that can expose enterprises to new security concerns such as security or firewall settings.
User rights management is available now as part of AppSense Application Manager 8.1.
To listen to the Podcast, please click on the image below or use this link here
A special thanks to Doug for taking the time to record and post this Podcast, thanks buddy :)
Congratulations to leading Citrix and AppSense reseller partner SCC on winning “Best Demo of the Power of FlexCast and HDX 2010″ at Citrix Summit / Synergy yesterday.
The SCC demo consists of running a hosted Citrix XenDesktop session delivered as a service to an Apple iPad and using AppSense technology to the configure and personalize the XenDesktop session based on the user and device properties. This solution now delivers a consistent experience to all users, regardless of where they are or how they are connecting to their desktop.
Posted by Doug Lane 
