Citrix & VMware VDI Offerings – Is AppSense User Environment Management ‘Really’ included in their products?

I recently read a great article titled ‘Windows 7 May Spur Virtual Desktops, On and Off the iPhone’ on CIO.com by Kevin Fogarty.

It is a great article and brings attention to the options available to us in how we can deliver desktop (sessions) to our users, even when they are not sat in front of a typical PC or Thin Client device – bring on, the mobile/cell phone device.  However, I have recently received a few emails and mentions on my Twitter Account in relation to the write-up regarding how AppSense is represented in the article.

The article goes on the reference how “VMware, Citrix and a range of other companies are putting clients on smart phones” and as part of this mobile discussion AppSense User Environment Management is rightly referenced as “The User Environment Manager from AppSense, for example, is designed to make a virtual desktop mimic the real thing by allowing end users to make changes, install software add photos, store cookies and do all the other things they’d do on an actual “personal” computer”.

Unfortunately however there appears to be a slight misrepresentation on the relationship between AppSense and the vendors Citrix& VMware, in that it says AppSense code is part of both the VMware and Citrix VDI offerings, “AppSense, whose code is part of both VMware and Citrix’s VDI offerings, stores all that data and code on the server and reloads it all every time that user logs on, no matter through what device the access comes” .

While AppSense enjoy a very close and strong relationship with both vendors, providing some of the strategic requirements for the VDI offerings in many of the largest enterprise deployments, I must at this point highlight that the AppSense capabilities come from a separate solution outside of VMware View and Citrix XenDesktop– in the form of the AppSense Management Suite.

The AppSense Management Suite is a standalone management framework and solution set which completely separates all elements of the user from the underlying desktop session, operating system and application set.  While this platform agnostic technology integrates seamlessly with the VMware and Citrix offerings, AppSense code is NOT part of any VMware or Citrix offering, and must be implemented in addition to the VDI solution from either vendor.

Hope this clears up any confusion, and please do remember I fully support the article and agree with the other points made.. I just wanted to ensure no one is disappointed when they trial or purchase either VMware View or Citrix XenDesktop and find out there is no AppSense software built in J

Look forward to reading more great articles on the possibilities of desktop deliver.. and of course that AppSense is a key part to this personal computing shift…

(the original article can be read here).