User environment management

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User environment management (also abbreviated to UEM) is the management of a computer user's experience within their desktop environment.

Contents

The user environment

In a modern workplace, an organisation grants each user access to an operating system and the applications required for their role, applying corporate policy to ensure the user has appropriate access levels. This typically includes items such as the file systems, printers, and applications they should and shouldn't have access to. Within this framework, each user has a preferred way of operating, and they make several changes to enable them to work most efficiently. Common user changes include email signatures, language settings, and the environment's "look and feel."

The combination of corporate policy and user preference is described as the "user personality." Users develop an attachment to their PCs, although “their attachment is not to the device itself, but to the way in which they do their jobs today”. [1]

Managing user personalization is a complex task that involves considering numerous factors and variables. As the desktop computing environment has evolved, the methods for delivering the desktop and applications have also expanded, adding to the complexity of managing the user's personality.

History

The personal computer was originally introduced to the workplace as a standalone device. Over time, these devices were networked, and network-attached storage was introduced to enable the sharing of resources and information. Several advancements and new technologies from software companies have extended and improved this model. Citrix offers the ability to store the desktop environment centrally and publish it to remote users. Microsoft acquired some of this technology to develop their terminal server solution.

Virtualization is a technology that evolved from mainframe computer, initially into the x86 architecture servers, and now enables virtualized desktop environments. This advancement is largely driven by VMware and Citrix. [2] A further technology, application streaming, offers an alternative method for delivering applications to users. Softricity was a leader in this technology before being purchased by Microsoft, who brought the solution to market as Microsoft Application Virtualization.

The current environment

An IT administrator now has a variety of options when delivering a desktop and applications to a user; personal computer, virtual desktops, terminal servers, application virtualization, application streaming. Typically a combination of these is used to address all the requirements and constraints placed on an organization. Market analysts suggest that these technologies are complementary and will exist in tandem, rather than the newest technologies dominating. [2] One growing segment of the market is the increase in provisioned and virtualized desktops, which can be managed centrally and address many of the limitations associated with distributed desktop computing. [3] Several analysts have stated that the future of PC desktops will be heterogeneous (i.e. differing Windows desktop delivery methods will coexist). Key to this is how system administrators design the user experience, the closer the basic look and feel is to how users have previously interacted with their desktops, the more accepting of the new technology they will be. “The nature of pooling or sharing desktops means that each user does not always log on to the same virtual desktop each time they log in and as a result, organizations need to properly plan for this version of musical chairs. It is absolutely critical when using pooled virtual machines (sometimes called dynamic pools) that you have a method of deploying applications and settings to users that is fast, robust and automated.”. [1] It is from this growing requirement that user environment management developed. Critical to the user environment is making sure that user profiles are portable in one manner or another from one session to the next.

User environment management

User environment management is a software solution which enables corporate policy and user preference data, the ‘user personality’, to be abstracted from the delivered operating system and applications and centrally managed. This personality can then be associated with the variety of delivery mechanisms an organization uses ‘on-demand’, enabling dynamic personalization of provisioned desktops and easier migration of users to newer technologies such as virtual desktops. User environment management can be applied to all Citrix, VMware and Microsoft delivery methods, including virtual, provisioned, streamed and published environments.

Due to the extensive nature of user environment management, there are a number of solutions in the market which address only part of the solution such as Group Policy Preferences, and DesktopAuthority (Dell) for policy management. Tranxition Software offers migration of profile settings with data and profile policy control. A few companies offer a comprehensive and complete user environment management solution (i.e. the ability to control both profile settings and offer a portable user experience). These solutions work across multiple Windows workspaces including physical, virtual, and cloud environments. The advantage to cross environment support is having a singular User Environment that works across all of your Windows workspaces. This approach helps onboard users from one workspace to the next, some even across Windows OS version changes. Vendors that support this comprehensive User Environment view include Unisys, Ivanti and Liquidware Liquidware. [4] It should also be noted that both VMware and Citrix have basic tools that are mainly available within their workspace offerings and are generally siloed for use only within those specific workspaces only.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citrix Systems</span> American software company

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual desktop</span> User interfaces describe ways in which virtual space of a computers desktop is expanded

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Application virtualization is a software technology that encapsulates computer programs from the underlying operating system on which they are executed. A fully virtualized application is not installed in the traditional sense, although it is still executed as if it were. The application behaves at runtime like it is directly interfacing with the original operating system and all the resources managed by it, but can be isolated or sandboxed to varying degrees.

Symantec Workspace Virtualization is an application virtualization solution for Microsoft Windows by Symantec, now known as Symantec Endpoint Virtualization Suite (SEVS).

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Desktop virtualization is a software technology that separates the desktop environment and associated application software from the physical client device that is used to access it.

Microsoft Application Virtualization is an application virtualization and application streaming solution from Microsoft. It was originally developed by Softricity, a company based in Boston, Massachusetts, acquired by Microsoft on July 17, 2006. App-V represents Microsoft's entry to the application virtualization market, alongside their other virtualization technologies such as Hyper-V, Microsoft User Environment Virtualization (UE-V), Remote Desktop Services, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

Ericom Software, Inc. is a Closter, New Jersey-based company that provides web isolation and remote application access software to businesses.

Remote Desktop Services (RDS), known as Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 and earlier, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows that allow a user to initiate and control an interactive session on a remote computer or virtual machine over a network connection. RDS was first released in 1998 as Terminal Server in Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition, a stand-alone edition of Windows NT 4.0 Server that allowed users to log in remotely. Starting with Windows 2000, it was integrated under the name of Terminal Services as an optional component in the server editions of the Windows NT family of operating systems, receiving updates and improvements with each version of Windows. Terminal Services were then renamed to Remote Desktop Services with Windows Server 2008 R2 in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IGEL Technology</span>

IGEL Technology is a German multinational software company best known for their "Next generation edge operating system" which is purpose-built for secure access to cloud workspaces such as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and/or Desktop as a Service.

A hosted desktop is a product set within the larger cloud-computing sphere generally delivered using a combination of technologies including hardware virtualization and some form of remote connection software, Citrix XenApp or Microsoft Remote Desktop Services being two of the most common. Processing takes place within the provider's datacentre environment with traffic between the datacentre and the client being primarily display updates, mouse movements and keyboard activity.

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Virtual Desktop Extender is a proven technology to extend a remote desktop with local applications. The technology merges local applications seamlessly into a remote desktop, hosted with Citrix XenApp, Citrix XenDesktop, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services, VMware View.

User virtualization refers to the independent management of all aspects of the user on the desktop environment. User virtualization decouples a user's profile, settings and data from the operating system and stores this information into a centralized data share either in the data center or cloud. User virtualization solutions provide consistent and seamless working environments across a range of application delivery mechanisms. Although user virtualization is most closely associated with desktop virtualization, this technology can also be used to manage user profiles on physical desktops. As the range of currently used operating systems expands, and the use of multiple devices by workers to perform their jobs escalates, user virtualization can support the creation of a "follow-me" identity that will allow access to a workspace without being tied into only a single device or a single location.

A mobile workspace is a user's portable working environment that gives them access to the applications, files and services they need to do their job no matter where they are.

Citrix Virtual Apps is an application virtualization software produced by Citrix Systems that allows Windows applications to be accessed via individual devices from a shared server or cloud system.

Citrix Cloud is a cloud management platform that allows organizations to deploy cloud-hosted desktops and apps to end users. It was developed by Citrix Systems and released in 2015.

Ericom Connect is a remote access/application publishing solution produced by Ericom Software that provides secure, centrally managed access to physical or hosted desktops and applications running on Microsoft Windows and Linux systems.

Citrix Virtual Desktops is a desktop virtualization product.

References

  1. 1 2 Craig Cook (2008). "Virtual Desktop Infrastructure - A Guide to Implementation Best Practices" (PDF). VMware/Longview. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-05-17. Retrieved 2008-05-04.
  2. 1 2 Philip Winslow (March 2008). "Desktop Virtualization Nears Inflection Point" (PDF). Credit Suisse . Retrieved 2008-05-04.
  3. ↑ Michael Rose (December 2007). "Virtualized Client Computing: A Taxonomy". IDC. Retrieved 2008-05-04.[ dead link ]
  4. ↑ "Exodus for unified endpoint management (UEM) migration". www.unisys.com. 2022-08-11. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
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