AppSense and Lakeside Software Partner to Deliver User Virtualization Assessment for All Desktop Environments

New York, NY and Bloomfield Hills, MI ― August 24, 2011 ― AppSense, the leading provider of user virtualization technology and Lakeside Software, the leading provider of business intelligence solutions for IT professionals, today announced a strategic partnership to provide a User Virtualization Assessment service that assists customers with the discovery and design phases of Desktop Transformation projects. By pairing AppSense and Lakeside’s flagship product, SysTrack, enterprises can move beyond assessment and planning into the implementation and operation of a user virtualization solution that helps reduce IT support costs, improve end user productivity and maintain low storage costs. Unlike other products on the market, AppSense and Lakeside are providing a comprehensive solution that ensures enterprises are selecting the right solutions for their desktop environment.

“The rise of interest in the past year for user virtualization technology has been astounding and AppSense has been leading this market since the beginning,” said Dan Salinas, VP of Business Development, Lakeside Software. “By partnering with AppSense we are taking out the risk of a failed VDI project by allowing customers to manage the process from initial assessment through delivery, ensuring the use of the right VDI technology. Both companies understand the critical impact the user experience is having in the desktop environment and this partnership is recognizing this change from a technology-centric to a user-centric approach.”

The User Virtualization Assessment service will work with an organization following a three-phase approach:

• Assist in defining end user “use cases” – by using a combination of assessment questionnaires and third-party tools to gather information to define end user cases and user virtualization candidacy with the goal being to collect inventory, usage and performance data regarding desktop inventory, end user and application environments.
• Analyze the environment to determine readiness for a user virtualization rollout – by applying project requirements to current environment and perform Gap Analysis, Application and User Analysis. Users will be grouped into “Use Cases” depending upon their requirements and each use case is assigned attributes to represent those requirements. Users are classified as excellent, fair and inappropriate candidates based upon many factors and an assessment report is provided to represent their candidacy.
• Provide a solution requirements and recommendations report – by creating a detailed summary report on an end user environment and provide recommendations on how best to move forward with a user virtualization deployment.

“As enterprises are beginning to understand that the one thing that remains constant in a desktop environment is the user and we are continually moving to an increasingly heterogeneous environment, the need to provide assessment tools for user virtualization is more important than ever,” said Dmitry Shkliarevsky, Head of Professional Services US at AppSense. “With the use of an industry leading assessment tool like SysTrack, AppSense Professional Services will be able to provide customers with detailed intelligence on their current desktop landscape and user experience levels by displaying concrete metrics that can be presented to understand the opportunity for user virtualization within their enterprise.”

Supporting Quotes

“HP delivers Client Transformation solutions including virtualization and migrations to Windows 7 globally, providing a full spectrum of products and services,” Tom Norton, Global Practice Director, Microsoft and Client Consulting Services, HP. “Solutions from Lakeside and AppSense are used extensively by our services organization in customer engagements. Understanding the current infrastructure, modeling the virtualized environment and architecting a consistent and flexible user experience is critical for current as well as next generation client environments. Having the two products more tightly integrated will allow enterprises to appropriately plan for the fully virtualized client, above the operating system and applications into the user experience.”

MJ Couldridge, director, Workplace Services Strategy and Sales for IBM said: “AppSense and Lakeside Software are key partners for IBM’s Smart Migration and Application Delivery solution. Assessment, user virtualization and monitoring are key elements of any Desktop Transformation, and by having a tightly integrated solution from AppSense and Lakeside Software integrated into our solution, customers will benefit from faster, smarter migrations to the new workplace and Windows 7.”

Steve Kaplan, vice president, Data Center Virtualization Practice for INX says: “As a partner of both companies, this integration and tightening of the relationship between AppSense and Lakeside Software for their assessment solutions will only serve to help INX with customer engagements. We use Lakeside Software’s Assessment capabilities to set up an effective migration to VDI and Windows 7 and recommend AppSense for VDI and Windows 7 migration where customers need to reduce the complexity of managing the end-user experience through user virtualization. With Lakeside now offering relevant reports for an AppSense implementation, this will help speed customer implementations, and ensure more successful, on-budget Desktop Transformation. I am delighted that AppSense and Lakeside are partnering.”

“Our Workplace Transformation Assessment and Planning (WTAP) and Virtual Desktop Alliance (VDA) use Lakeside SysTrack for VDI and Windows 7 assessment and design and post-implementation monitoring and management, and use AppSense to simplify the end-user experience for virtualized users,” said Jed Ayres, SVP of Partner Management and Marketing, MTM. “With our customers now receiving richer user data about their applications, personalization settings and profile, their WTAP and VDA implementations will be faster and more successful.”

About AppSense

AppSense is a global independent software provider and leading name in user virtualization solutions driven to redefining the relationship the world has with technology, by unlocking it, so that technology doesn’t control what we do. AppSense is focused on the creation of game-changing technology solutions that re-write the economics of IT and that become the life-force for a mobile, interconnected, interactive world. With the advent of myriad mobile devices, Windows 7, cloud computing, data privacy and ever-demanding employees, user virtualization allows you to unlock the potential of these new technologies while liberating your most valuable asset. 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 Santa Clara in the US, London and Manchester in the UK, and additional offices in Munich, Melbourne, Amsterdam, Paris and Oslo. For more information, visit www.appsense.com.

About Lakeside Software

Lakeside Software is the leading provider of business intelligence solutions for IT professionals. The SysTrack data platform includes solutions for User Experience Scoring, End-to-End Monitoring, Problem Diagnostics, VDI Assessment & Planning and Power Management that empower IT with the actionable information to dramatically improve productivity and reduce costs. The patented DataMine distributed relational database architecture aggregates user-level data unmatched in depth and quality, enabling SysTrack’s sophisticated reporting intelligence to deliver unprecedented insight into application usage and resource utilization.

Lakeside Software, SysTrack, Resolve and DataMine are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of Lakeside Software, Inc. Atlantis Computing and Atlantis ILIO are trademarks of Atlantis Computing, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.