The Euro-Invasion (of User Environment Management companies)
Walking around MMS, I see that both RES and AppSense are represented here, and while it isn't unusual to see them at shows, I was a little surprised to see them at a show that's more about server management than user experience.
Walking around MMS, I see that both RES and AppSense are represented here, and while it isn't unusual to see them at shows, I was a little surprised to see them at a show that's more about server management than user experience (although, I've heard that's all about to change with the Wednesday morning keynote, but I'm writing this Tuesday night).
We know the stories of each company: both are very popular in Europe, and especially the UK, where AppSense is said to be installed in 40% Citrix environments. Both companies focus on managing the user environment and have been trading blows feature-wise for many years. Here in the US, however, the install base is significantly lower, and while we may know about RES and AppSense, a much smaller percentage of organizations actually use their products.
Both companies think that's about to change.
Both RES and AppSense have recently moved a significant amount of their company operations to the US (AppSense's HQ is actually in New York, now), establishing beachheads here in order to make inroads into a relatively untapped market. Sure, there are other players here, Immidio (Netherlands), triCerat (US), Scense (Netherlands), and Liquidware Labs' (US) ProfileUnity, but the commitment to the US market that RES and AppSense are showing by actually moving here is impressive.
How can something have so much success in Europe and not in the US? Maybe it's simply the fact that most of the companies in that space aren't based in the US? If so, way to go guys - this move is a guaranteed winner. But what if it's more philosophical? I can't imagine what that would be, other than some sort of "forget the user" mentality, but I hope for their sake that they find it and change it.
I don't think all companies need exactly what RES, AppSense, and others are offering. Some environments get along just fine with plain old Flex Profiles (although even that isn't available for free anymore), group policies, scripts, or even homemade solutions, but there's certainly a large number that could use a streamlined management system for their user environments.
So, here's to the new "Euro-Invasion". What do you think…will it work?
Gabe,
Several years ago, when System Center was being announced, Microsoft talked about how SCCM (aka Configuration Manager, the successor to SMS) and SCOM (Operations Manager, formerly known as MOM) were being re-designed from a database perspective, with a goal of eventually combining into a single database, eliminating duplication of information that exists in two separate "here is what I want out there" and "here is what I have going on out there" databases.
I mess with SCCM from time to time, and have tried to work with SCOM, and it seems silly to me to have two separate databases with the basics of inventory. Can you ping the Microsoft folks and determine if they still plan to combine, or is that now just silly.