September 3, 2009
Live from VMworld 09, AppSense – the world leading User Environment Management solution provider – are extremely pleased to be awarded Gold in the Best Desktop Virtualization award for AppSense Environment Manager 8.0.
AppSense beat off strong competition from Liquidware Labs for their Desktop Virtualization Diagnostics tool, Stratusphere, and Workspace Virtualization vendor Virtual Computer Inc. for their NxTop product.
Like most that witness the capabilities of AppSense, the VMworld judges said “AppSense rocked our boat… It offers the most complete user environment management system out there.” This comes as a further endorsement (following the recent announcement from Citrix) on the importance of a true UEM solution to enable enterprise adoption of VDI at lowest possible cost over and above basic in-built profile management technologies.
AppSense Environment Manager enables IT to deliver fully personalized virtual desktops from just a single set of OS and Application images, enabling scalable user adoption. UEM allows organizations to implement virtual desktops at much lower TCO than using Profile Management alone. “UEM addresses not just personal settings and profile data, but also the initial configuration of a desktop, including applying user installed applications, providing a ‘follow-me’ personality with cross operating system platform support, as well as enterprise-scalability and end-to-end visibility. Personalization settings can be managed across multiple operating systems, desktop delivery mechanisms and on virtual, physical and offline devices.” explains Pete Rawlinson, VP of Marketing for AppSense.
Oliver Sills, Senior Product Manager for AppSense Environment Manager said, “As you can imagine, we are delighted to win such a coveted award at this prestigious event. We are continually working with our customers and partners to develop the solution and I would like to dedicate this award to our strong and committed development teams who have worked tirelessly to produce such a great product.”
Looking ahead, AppSense will continue to work with customers to enable some of the largest VDI deployments in the world, along with the development of the UEM solution set… with some extremely exciting product developments in the pipeline…
A list of the winners from the other categories can be found here
Further to my blog post, the official AppSense Press Release on winning this award can be found here
Jon Wallace, Senior Solution Architect and Head of US System Engineers
5 Comments | 
Citrix, roaming profiles, rto, Sepago, Streaming, TS, user environment management, User Profile Manager, VDI, virtual profiles, VMware, VMworld, XenDesktop | Tagged: AppSense, Citrix, customers, Desktop Virtualization, Environment Manager, Last Write Wins, liquidware, Microsoft, nxtop, Personality, Personalization, Profile, profiles, Registry keys, Registry Settings, Rollback, stratusphere, UEM, user environment management, VDI, View, virtual computer, VMware, VMworld, XenDesktop | 
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Posted by Gareth Kitson
August 31, 2009
Sumit Dhawan over in the Citrix XenDeskop group has posted a very interesting article in the run up to VMworld 09. I’m also hearing some interesting rumors about activity in user personalization space. Sumit makes some very important points….which are all based on actual customer implementations.
I’m also over in San Francisco attending VMworld this week and no doubt will hear about lots of upcoming companies and technologies, aiming to address the challenges of virtualized desktop management. It’s great we have so many brains fixed on these issues now, but remember it’s all about what can actually be implemented in a customer environment. We have to be pragmatic. Through working with a substantial stable of customers, we know there is a right way to address the challenges of user personalization in desktop estates, and agree with the points Sumit makes in his blog. Looking forward to more dialog on this!
Pete Rawlinson
VP WW Marketing, AppSense
Here is a quick excerpt from Sumit’s blog post along with link:
‘On the run up to VMworld 2009, there seems to be an increasing amount of activity on the subject of user personalization in VDI. Even Gartner has written about dynamic workspace, which has user personalization as a key element of the stack. What does this mean? What is user personalization all about? And, where does it need to be? Let’s take a closer look…….’
The full post can be found here.
1 Comment | Citrix, CTP, Edgesight, gartner, roaming profiles, rumor, rumour, Sepago, Streaming, TS, user environment management, User Profile Manager, VDI, VMware, VMworld, XenApp, XenApp 5, XenDesktop | Tagged: AppSense, Citrix, customers, Desktop Virtualization, Environment Manager, gartner, Personality, Personalization, Policies, Profile, profiles, Registry keys, Registry Settings, ROI, Rollback, SBC, UEM, user environment management, VDI, VMware, VMworld, XenApp, XenDesktop | Permalink
Posted by peterjr11
August 27, 2009
7 Comments | Citrix, general, Mobile Device, TS, user environment management, VDI, VMware | Tagged: AppSense, Citrix, Corruption, Desktop Virtualization, Environment Manager, Last Write Wins, Logon Scripts, Logon Times, Personality, Personalization, Policies, Profile, profiles, Registry keys, Registry Settings, Rollback, UEM, user environment management, VDI, View, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop | Permalink
Posted by Oliver Sills
August 26, 2009
This is the third installment in a series of posts about the new features and options in AppSense Version 8 Service Pack 2. (If you have not yet downloaded this latest release, you can read more info and download it from here )
AppSense Environment Manager 8.0 Service Pack 2 introduces a new protocol for transferring data between the endpoint device and the server database which holds all the user personalization settings.
The change means that the Personalization Server now benefits as it has to do a lot less processing in order to insert or extract the required data from the database, and can therefore support a lot more users and even faster response times.
Part of this change is to store the user’s personalization data in a compressed format in the database, which means the required database footprint is a lot smaller (in some cases by a factor of 10).
Internal performance tests yielded the following results:
- 87.5% increase in performance scalability between version 8.0 and 8.0 SP2.
- 45.0% increase in performance scalability between version 8.0 SP1 and 8.0 SP2.
Note: On upgrade to Service Pack 2, User Personalization data is in the old protocol format. This data is upgraded to the new format, in the database, on demand as applications are used and such, will incur a small performance hit on first launch. However, once all endpoints are upgraded to Service Pack 2 and all data in the database has been upgraded, the performance of User Personalization will be much higher than previous releases and scalability will be dramatically improved.
As always, if you have any questions or require any further information, please do get in touch.
P:S
As this is an ever growing blog topic, the previous posts on the other new features we have detailed can be found below:
NEW FEATURE No. 1 – AppSense Environment Manager 8.0 Service Pack 2 – Run As
NEW FEATURE No. 2 – AppSense Environment Manager 8.0 Service Pack 2 – Connect As
NEW FEATURE No. 3 – AppSense Environment Manager 8.0 Service Pack 2 – Improved compression and data handling protocol
NEW FEATURE No. 4 – AppSense Environment Manager 8.0 Service Pack 2 – Manipulation of files in Personalization Analysis
NEW FEATURE No. 5 – AppSense Environment Manager 8.0 Service Pack 2 – Run Once
NEW FEATURE No. 6 – AppSense Environment Manager 8.0 Service Pack 2 – Group SID Refresh
NEW FEATURE No. 7 – AppSense Environment Manager 8.0 Service Pack 2 – Trigger Action Time Audit Event
NEW FEATURE No. 8 – AppSense Environment Manager 8.0 Service Pack 2 – Stop If Fails
NEW FEATURE No. 9 – AppSense Environment Manager 8.0 Service Pack 2 – New Application Categories in the User Interface
NEW FEATURE No. 10 – AppSense Environment Manager 8.0 Service Pack 2 – Refresh
NEW FEATURE No. 11 – AppSense Environment Manager 8.0 Service Pack 2 – Registry Hive Exclusions
8 Comments | Citrix, general, Laptop, Mobile Device, TS, user environment management, VDI, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop | Tagged: AppSense, compression, concurrent users, Corruption, customers, database, Desktop Virtualization, Environment Manager, Last Write Wins, Logon Scripts, Logon Times, Personality, Personalization, personalization data, Profile, profiles, protocol, Registry keys, Registry Settings, Rollback, service pack 2, Support Calls, UEM, user environment management, VDI, version 8, View, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop | Permalink
Posted by Oliver Sills
July 24, 2009
As a leading user environment management vendor, AppSense are in a unique position in that we have been involved many VDI projects and rollouts, of which the majority vary in architecture, technology and requirements. One thing that does however remain the same between such projects is that of the requirement for user personalization management.
For many years the roaming profile provided user personalization in SBC environments, however as VDI deployments become more and more complex, with varying methods of desktop and applications delivery, along with multiple desktop operating systems and subsequently, profile versions, the roaming profile is no longer able to provide the user with their required settings in such (complex?) scenarios.
Furthermore, these desktops must now be constructed and configured based on the context of the user and/or connecting device. i.e. mapping specific printers local to the user and device dependent on the location of the user logging on, or applying security policies to hide or remove access to network drives, folders, data and functionality such as copy and paste or print, again, based on the location of the user. Whereby the desktop delivered to a user when connected locally inside the corporate LAN is different to that of the desktop delivered to the same user when connecting remotely from outside of the LAN.
One more point to consider is that of enabling the user to freely roam between the server hosted or provisioned virtual desktop, and the users local desktop device such as their PC or roaming laptop. How do you as IT enable user settings to automically follow the user between different platforms?
AppSense Environment Manager was designed from the ground-up with functionality to accommodate the above requirements, making it, or, other user environment management solutions essential to the mass adoption of VDI on an enterprise scale. In essence, AppSense provides the ability to encompass multiple delivery technologies and OS platforms by allowing the user to roam between the paradigms without any noticeable change to their desktop or user experience, enabling IT and the organization to benefit from flexibility, agility and lower TCO. I do at this point want to highlight that this is different to the personalization management provided by the leading VDI vendors (Citrix, Microsoft, VMware etc), as their in-built functionality is typically designed for their delivery platform, not each other’s. In essence, further to the advanced personalization and simplification of desktop management, AppSense also enables an organization to use combinations of both existing technologies, and (potentially) more importantly, any future VDI delivery technologies and vendors.
I have just found a very nice blog covering the functionality of not only AppSense Environment Manager, but also the base technology inherent within the leading VDI service providers – Citrix, VMware and Microsoft. Hopefully from this blog post, and the information over at GenerationV, you will see how AppSense bridges the gap between the roaming user and a dynamic, flexible VDI model..
For more information on this, the GenerationV Profile Management blog can be found here
Leave a Comment » | Citrix, Group Policy, Laptop, Licensing, Mobile Device, Per Device, Printing, Uncategorized, user environment management, VDI, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop | Tagged: Application Manager, AppSense, Citrix, customers, Desktop Virtualization, Environment Manager, GPO, Group Policy, Last Write Wins, Logon Scripts, Logon Times, Mapping, NTUser.DAT, Performance Manager, Personality, Personalization, Profile, profiles, Registry keys, Registry Settings, ROI, Rollback, SBC, UEM, user environment management, VDI, View, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop | Permalink
Posted by Gareth Kitson
July 22, 2009
I am excited about writing this one, the much awaited 2009 AppSense Technical University is soon upon us! It will take place in October and November!! Following on from our previous events, there are some exciting new developments at AppSense that we would like to share with you; amongst other topics:
- User Introduced Applications (UIA) Technology – do we need, and how do we enable, users to install applications into non-persistent VDI sessions, and have the applications (and settings and preferences) remain available in the next non persistent vdi session?!
- AppSense Management Suite Version 8.1 Product RoadMap
- ‘Policy & Personalization’ best practices across virtual and multi OS platform environments
Why attend the AppSense Technical University?
The AppSense University is a ‘free of charge’ event to our AppSense Certified Solution Partners, and is a great chance to meet up with the AppSense Technical teams, as well as your peers from within the community. As a valued member of our Certified Solutions Partner program, you are invited to this comprehensive technical update and networking event.
The 2 day event will include in-depth, hands on training designed to enable you to provide consultancy services and implement the AppSense Management Suite for prospects and customers.
Register for further information
As always, AppSense is hosting several Technical University events in locations around the globe. If you are interested in attending an AppSense Technical University, click on the country or region most relevant to you and we will keep you informed of the event details:
United States, November 2009
United Kingdom, October 2009
Norway, November 2009
DACH Region, November 2009
BeNeLux, November 2009
Australia, October/November 2009
We look forward to seeing you there!
Best Regards,
The AppSense Technical University Team.
Website: http://www.appsense.com
Email: university@appsense.com
Telephone: +44 (0)1928 793 444
1 Comment | CAL, Citrix, Group Policy, Licensing, Per Device, Printing, user environment management, VDI, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop | Tagged: Active Directory, Application Manager, Applications, AppSense, Citrix, Environment Manager, GPO, Group Policy, Last Write Wins, Lockdown, Logon Scripts, Logon Times, Microsoft, NTUser.DAT, Performance Manager, Personality, Personalization, Policies, Printing, Profile, profiles, reduce costs, Registry keys, Registry Settings, ROI, Rollback, Security, Software Restriction, Support Calls, UEM, user environment management, VDI, View, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop | Permalink
Posted by Gareth Kitson
July 8, 2009
Tom Howarth (a VCP/vExpert specializing in Thin Client & Virtualization solutions) and author of www.PlanetVM.net has published a comprehensive review of AppSense Environment Manager Version 8.0
Tom is well known and highly respected within the VMware and Citrix communities and as such, this positive review comes with high regards. In Tom’s concluding words he describes AppSense Environment Manager as, “It is a Ronseal product – it does what it says on the tin.”
The article can be viewed at http://planetvm.net/blog/?p=122
Leave a Comment » | Citrix, Group Policy, Per Device, Printing, Uncategorized, user environment management, VDI, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop | Tagged: AppSense, Citrix, Environment Manager, GPO, Group Policy, Last Write Wins, Lockdown, Logon Scripts, Logon Times, Mapping, Microsoft, NTUser.DAT, Personality, Personalization, Policies, Printing, Profile, profiles, Registry keys, Registry Settings, Rollback, UEM, user environment management, VDI, View, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop | Permalink
Posted by Gareth Kitson
July 2, 2009
One of the biggest problems in a SBC (Microsoft Terminal Services or Citrix XenApp) and VDI (Citrix XenDesktop and VMware View) environment is that of the issues caused by the dreaded Roaming Profile. One such issue which plagues both users and IT Support desks alike is Profile Corruption.
Profile corruption is seen as innevitabele when using roaming profiles, and can leave a user locked out of their desktop for hours, support desks inundated and overwhelmed with support cases, and is a huge drain on resources at great cost to a business.
AppSense Environment Manager not only prevents Profile Corruption, but also enables IT Support desks to reduce other profile related support cases from being a 2 hour resolution process, to just 5 or 10 minutes. This not only improves user satisfaction, but makes for a more efficient, and lower cost support desk.
Profile corruption can occur through the overwriting of user settings as a user logs off from concurrent working sessions and settings made in each separate desktop try and write back to a central store. Often overwriting each other, causing conflict, and leading to corruption
With AppSense Environment Manager, when a user launches an application, regardless of how it is delivered to a user (local install, Citrix, Microsoft App-V, VMware ThinApp, InstallFree etc…), we inject a Profile Virtualization Component (PVC) into the running process which allows any personalized settings, i.e. writes to the registry or file system, to be virtualized and therefore effectively redirected to a ‘local virtualization cache’ located on the user’s endpoint or within the user session itself (in the case of TS/XenApp). This is an automated process, no need for manually specifying which registry keys or settings to capture.
When the application is closed (not just at user logoff), the contents of the ‘local virtualization cache’ (only those [delta] changes made by the user during this running instance of the application) are then synchronized to a back-end database server so that a centralized copy of the user’s personalization settings is now available and able to be streamed back into open concurrent sessions or across multiple delivery mechanisms.
This eliminates the last write wins at the session level by not writing back to NTUSER.DAT at logoff. Significantly reducing the window for corruption as settings are syncronized back throughout the user session, not all in their entirity at logoff.
So now as an additional benefit, settings can be shared across concurrent sessions as the next time the user launches the same application, be it from the same or a different concurrent session, the contents of the ‘local virtual cache’ are checked to see if the settings are up-to-date. If they are, the user will get their latest personalization settings from the local cache. If the settings are out-of-date, then the new delta user personalization settings for that specific application will be streamed down to the endpoint device on-demand.
With remediation tools such as Profile Rollback, application settings (which are stored in the SQL database at a per application level for each user) can be rolled back with just a couple of clicks in the AppSense console. This takes 2 hour support calls down to just 5 or 10 minutes, and the beauty is, as the user settings are virtualized and so are not part of the desktop itself, the user need not log off their session for the rollback to occur. Merely close and re-open the application in question..
Leave a Comment » | Citrix, general, user environment management, VDI, VMware, XenDesktop | Tagged: Corruption, Last Write Wins, NTUser.DAT, Personalization, Profile, Rollback, Support Calls | Permalink
Posted by Gareth Kitson
AppSense 