AppSense user virtualization solution helps desktop virtualization adoption

AppSense was recently named the Citrix Ready Solution Partner of the Year during Citrix Synergy San Francisco 2010 — and for good reason. The AppSense solution provides a major benefit to Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix XenApp products, providing maximum user adoption and satisfaction.

The AppSense solution provides what is known as user virtualization, a technology that is still in its infancy; because of that, it doesn’t get a lot of airplay in the media. User virtualization isn’t discussed very often, so people may not have heard of the technology yet, let alone fully understand it or how it is used.

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While at the Citrix Synergy Conference, I was able to speak with folks from the AppSense team to gain a better understanding of user virtualization. I also got a demo of their solution and saw firsthand why they won the Citrix award.

The AppSense Virtualized User Infrastructure manages everything specific to a user. The user environment contains user-based corporate policies, personalization settings, user rights management, and user-introduced applications. The technology works across the physical and virtual world (and back) and crosses operating system versions, such as Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008.

To find out more about this 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.

InfoWorld: User virtualization seems to be a relatively new offering. Can you give us a bit of background or explain what exactly people mean when they say user virtualization?

AppSense: For the past three decades, the predominant method of delivering computing capability to an employee has been the desktop PC. In this distributed model of client computing, the desktop is one holistic asset consisting of an operating system, applications, and user information, all tied to one piece of hardware.

Recently, we have seen this change into a component model where operating system, applications, and user data are separated into three individual components, or layers, that can be managed independently. User virtualization is a way of managing the third layer of user-specific information separately from the operating system and applications so that it can be applied into any desktop delivery mechanism, on-demand.

InfoWorld: What are some of the benefits that an organization can receive when deploying a user virtualization solution in their desktop environment?

AppSense: This three-layer desktop model provides economies of scale as well as a more flexible, agile desktop estate that delivers a stable and consistent user environment. By separating the user layer from the OS and application set, IT is able to make the changes/updates required while ensuring the user experience is seamless, personal, predictable, and easily manageable. So not only does user virtualization make the desktop environment more efficient and therefore easy on the IT department, but it also makes it easy on the user by providing them with a desktop that is personal to that user while delivering the requirements of business need.

InfoWorld: So how can user virtualization extend the benefits of desktop virtualization?

AppSense: What user virtualization really does is enable desktop virtualization. The point of desktop virtualization is to centralize the desktop environment to enable simpler, more cost-effective management that significantly reduces TCO over traditional approaches to managing desktops. User virtualization delivers the third layer into cost-effective, concise management to ensure that all aspects of the desktop are properly managed, delivering the quality desktop that the user population demands, but with the control means that IT require.

InfoWorld: Among your customers, what are you seeing as the primary reason for why they are adopting user virtualization?

AppSense: One of the key value propositions offered by our solution is that user personalization is conducted across multiple desktop delivery platforms as well as multiple application delivery platforms in real time. Our customers today typically already make use of multiple application delivery platforms and are now beginning to make use of multiple desktop delivery platforms as those platforms mature. In this sense, customer use cases get complex very quickly.

Now, consider this with the drive for Windows 7 migration — the customer has many challenges regarding how to get the applications to their users and to ensure seamless user experience along the way. So right now I would suggest that seamless user experience while the customer delivers against its desktop strategy is a primary reason for adoption.

InfoWorld: With the release of Microsoft Windows 7 and the increasing adoption rate of desktop virtualization, how will a user virtualization solution help with migration to these new delivery methods?

AppSense: With the increase in desktop virtualization adoption and the release of Windows 7, enterprises that have a user virtualization solution installed are able to easily migrate between operating system versions to new or indeed older operating system versions via any desktop delivery method. By abstracting the user layer from the operating system and application set, IT is able to stream user personalization information on demand, with underlying operating system or application set changes — or indeed failures — not adversely affecting this user data layer. The net effect being no loss of user data at any stage and the migration from one operating system into another being a seamless process as far as the user is concerned.

As an example, migrating to Windows 7 in particular can be very risky and expensive for many reasons, but especially if it affects the employee’s working environment. A major challenge in migrating existing users to Windows 7 is the user personalization or environment, and ensuring that the user applications function exactly as they did previously is key. Given that the underlying Microsoft user profile has changed significantly in structure between Windows XP (the most likely candidate for the migration from in business today) and Windows 7, most of the existing configuration management knowledge and associated scripts will be outdated, and hence will not function correctly with the new operating system.

The user’s personality from Windows XP will not transfer seamlessly, and hence the user is required to re-personalize their desktop and application settings. However, with user virtualization all user-specific information from the “old” desktop is simply injected into the “new” desktop, ensuring a seamless experience to the user.

InfoWorld: What does the user virtualization market look like today, and how do you think that will change over the next 5 years?

AppSense: User virtualization is still in its infancy in many respects, but just in the past six months we have seen a dramatic increase in adoption. I think that as enterprises begin to implement desktop virtualization, we will see a significant increase in adoption of user virtualization solutions, particularly given that most organizations are using multiple delivery technologies for their desktop and application needs and require automated, on-demand models for ensuring user personalization is delivered. Organizations are beginning to understand that in order to realize the full benefits of desktop virtualization, a user virtualization solution is a key component. Once this is fully understood, we will see user virtualization really take off.

InfoWorld: Finally, how does AppSense technology differ from other user virtualization solutions on the market? And what makes your solution unique?

AppSense: AppSense offers a comprehensive solution that enables enterprises to have complete control over user data. Our technology is the only solution on the market that enables standardized virtual desktop environments to be fully and automatically personalized “on-demand,” without cumbersome profiles or scripts.

As importantly, our solution is fully capable of automating the user personalization between virtual desktops, physical desktops, and any mixture of application delivery technologies that can be applied to those desktops, thus bridging the gaps between the traditional desktop, the virtual desktop, and indeed the Server Based Computing desktop. All of this is achieved by triggers on application start or stop events, not a logon/logoff event, so personalization is achieved in real time as the users make use of the product sets.

In addition, AppSense is the only user virtualization solution recommended by Citrix to be used in any desktop environment.

Once again, I’d like to thank Simon Rust, VP of Engineering at AppSense, for taking time to speak with me about a new technology that seems to provide a lot of lift to the adoption of desktop virtualization: user virtualization.

This article, “AppSense user virtualization solution helps desktop virtualization adoption” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of David Marshall’s Virtualization Report blog and follow the latest developments in virtualization at InfoWorld.com.