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Profiling Citrix XenDesktop™
Used in combination with Citrix XenDesktop, AppSense technology enables desktop administrators to enforce corporate policy, define personalization settings and manage user profile data across thousands of virtual desktops. The user experience is optimized since AppSense provides a consistent, predictable and personalized desktop environment.
With AppSense Management Suite administrators can:
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Deliver personalized desktops at a lower cost
Details
- Separates user personalization from the virtual desktop image, keeping the desktop generic while enabling user flexibility.
- Enables virtual desktop images to be pooled, significantly reducing storage requirements and maintanence.
Benefits
- Provides personalization across virtual desktops while reducing desktop image management complexity and network storage costs.
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Accelerate physical to virtual desktop migration
Details
- Enables migration to virtual desktops by managing the migration of relevant profile data, reducing profile size, and centralizing profiles.
Benefits
- Rapid migration from physical to virtual desktops without driving up implementation costs.
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Simplify management of virtual desktop user profiles
Details
- Eliminates profile corruption, optimizes profiles to reduce storage costs, decreases login times, enables policy enforcement from one console.
Benefits
- Effective management of profile data without intensive scripting work and bloated profiles.
How AppSense adds value to your Citrix XenDesktop solution.
AppSense software provides a central point where user settings for each virtual or provisioned desktop can be managed. Policy information like application and data access, and personalization settings such as Windows desktop look and feel can all easily be managed for thousands of virtual desktops from one place.
AppSense extends the value of Citrix XenDesktop in three ways...
1. User Profile Management 
view diagram
Key to desktop virtualization is the ability to effectively manage this environment without degradation of service to the user. AppSense software enables quick and intuitive implementation of policy and personalization settings for thousands of virtual and provisioned desktops.
Using a simple GUI-based approach, user settings such as profile data, folder redirection and application access can be enforced, and personalization settings such as desktop look and feel and language, can also be affected within multiple virtual desktop environments and provisioned desktops simultaneously.
2. Dynamic personalization of pooled images view diagram
Although many early implementations of virtual desktops resulted in a 1:1 correlation between a physical and virtual desktop, the real benefit of virtualization comes with the pooling of desktop images; that is, creating a sub-set of 'template' desktops that can be shared across many users. However, this method lacks the personalized experience previously realized on the physical desktop.
By providing dynamic personalization of pooled images on access, AppSense technology is able to give the user a personalized environment whilst utilizing a 'common' pooled image. Since personalization data is stored centrally using AppSense and not on the virtual desktop, all personalization settings are persisted on subsequent access. This enables IT to realize the costs savings in reduced image maintenance and storage without compromising the user experience.
3. Migration of user settings to virtual desktop view diagram
User settings are centrally stored and administered by AppSense software, so all user configuration data stored on the PC can be first moved to a central location before migrating a user to a virtual or provisioned desktop. This negates the need to manage profile data on the virtual server, enables subsequent ease of user profile management when migration is complete and most importantly, provides a seamless migration experience for the user. This all leads to an easier virtual desktop migration and a more effective user management capability once virtualized.
Combining delivery mechanisms view diagram
AppSense technology ensures that combining delivery mechanisms occurs with minimal if any disruption to the end user. Policy and personalization settings are maintained across virtual desktop sessions and between delivery mechanisms. For example, users are able to utilize the same personalization settings for their Xen virtual desktop and for published applications within those desktops. The user needn’t know the delivery mechanism is being used to provide them their optimal working experience.
Learn more about how AppSense enhances Citrix XenDesktop; download the AppSense Citrix XenDesktop Overview and the Citrix AppSense Joint Value Proposition.