AppSense updates DesktopNow Suite

AppSense has announced the latest release of DesktopNow – its industry-leading physical, virtual desktop & DaaS management suite. The new release of DesktopNow further reduces IT management costs across VDI, physical desktop and Desktop-as-a-Service DaaS environments while improving user satisfaction and productivity.

The updated DesktopNow delivers cost savings to enterprises managing both physical and virtualized desktop environments. Key enhancements include:
• Simplified installation and setup process, including a new evaluation mode that installs all components in under 10 minutes.
• Enhanced capabilities for non-persistent VDI and physical PC deployments.
• Improved DaaS support, including multi-instance support and an all-new service provider program.
• On-demand rights elevation to maintain tight control over admin rights without disrupting user productivity.
• Crowd-sourced insights into user requirements for more proactive policy management.

Running on a smaller server footprint, DesktopNow requires significantly fewer system resources and delivers a faster response than earlier versions. The reduction in hardware and disk space required to run the suite, along with optimizations DesktopNow applies to the broader desktop environment, combine to greatly reduce IT capital expenses and improve the user experience. Meanwhile, new support and management features reduce helpdesk tickets and improve IT efficiency, lowering IT operational expenditure.

“AppSense DesktopNow is central to our management strategy for both our physical PCs and our virtual desktop environment,” said Brooks Bennett, CIO at City of Round Rock (TX). “With this latest release, AppSense has made its product even easier to deploy and use while also expanding the granular controls that have helped make our desktop projects successful."

“The desktop is synonymous with productivity in the workplace, but the great challenge facing organisations is providing the great desktop experience needed to enable user productivity while managing costs, security and ROI,” said Ravi Khatod, SVP Marketing of AppSense. “Previously this has meant trade-offs with better user productivity, often meaning cost and security sacrifices. AppSense DesktopNow eliminates these trades-offs across all delivery platforms”.

To help IT departments manage specific user needs, the latest edition of DesktopNow introduces crowd-sourced user feedback. Due to the power and levels of detail offered by DesktopNow’s granular policy controls, IT departments can offer the best-fit policy controls and permissions for each individual user or group. Real-time crowdsourced feedback allows IT to monitor which applications and features are being requested most often by specific users or groups, and empowers administrators to revise policy decisions more quickly, in turn reducing demand on IT support resources.

“DesktopNow not only offers organisations the ability to help a workforce become more productive by finding the best IT solution to help get the job done, it is also helping the IT department become leaner and more agile. With less time spent managing and supporting users, IT can focus on developing strategies to drive growth and further efficiency throughout an organisation and help contribute to overall business goals,” said Khatod.

DesktopNow is the leading solution for simultaneously manage Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and physical PCs from one implementation, allowing greater flexibility and simplified approach for enterprises. With DaaS becoming an increasingly attractive solution for enterprises, there is a growing requirement for IT departments to manage this type of environment as a constituent part of an organisation’s complete desktop estate. DesktopNow allows the same granular, policy-based user management controls and features for DaaS as it does for both physical and VDI environments, allowing faster and simpler integration.