AppSense [EOL] Reviews

We're using AppSense for the virtual desktop environment, personalizing user profiles, and placing some restrictions on virtual desktops. We're also using AppSense for redirecting home folders to shared folders and other personalization activities.

I like the customization features of AppSense. The solution has some self-fulfilling capabilities which you can push as a policy, so instead of configuring the group policy, you can do it from AppSense. For example, you can add authentication, edit module authentication settings, and do some personalizations on AppSense. You must input the registry key and apply that to a group where the virtual desktop resides.

Another feature of AppSense has to do with sharing folders. Suppose you want additional folders redirected to your OneDrive folder from the default folders, desktop, document, and picture. In that case, you can place that registry value in AppSense, and once applied to a virtual desktop environment, it will automatically synch. It will directly apply the value to the user device, and the bulk of your work will be taken care of.

AppSense also allows you to push DNS settings, so if you want to redirect a network using the DNS, you can do that from AppSense, which I find beneficial, mainly because of regulatory challenges here in India versus the US, where all virtual desktop environments are hosted in the US, and there are routing regulations.

An area for improvement in AppSense is pricing because it's much higher than Citrix and VMware solutions. It's one of the virtualization software that allows user profile virtualization, but you can also find that capability in the lower-priced VMware and Citrix software.

AppSense has many features but is more expensive, so it would be better if it had a reduced cost or the solution had more enhanced capabilities. For example, in group policies, you can maintain the redirections and registry settings through the group policy via PolicyPak, another third-party product for managing the group policy. If AppSense could have a configuration similar to what PolicyPak has, then that would make AppSense better.

AppSense is OS-based, so when my company purchased it in the past, it could run on Windows 7. Eventually, Ivanti told my company that it no longer supported Windows 7, so my company had to purchase AppSense for Windows 10. In the future, the new version of AppSense should work on different Windows versions.

I've been using AppSense for more than three years.

AppSense is a stable solution, so I'm giving it ten out of ten on stability, and it's client-based, so whatever you push to the client will work on the virtual desktop.

I'd rate AppSense scalability a ten, mainly if your reason for scaling is to ensure you can securely manage your virtual desktop environment. The solution has many more security features than what FSLogix and VMware have as virtualization tools.

I've personally contacted the Ivanti team to support some AppSense challenges that deal with pushing any policy. I will take as an example, Click-to-Run, which you want to customize, and you want a duration and logistic key for the user, and that logistic key isn't working as expected, so you'd reach out to support saying, "I'm pushing this, but every time, it reverts." The Ivanti team told me that's a Microsoft feature, and if I restart the application, it will take the logistic key by default which comes with the OS.

I've raised between five to ten tickets with the support team, and I'd rate the team seven out of ten because response time is still dependent on the severity of the case. If you raise a Severity A case, you'll receive support within two to four hours, which is the expected SLA. Still, if the technician or engineer is busy, it could take longer for him to contact you, for example, within six to eight hours.

Neutral

We switched to AppSense because we wanted to make some restrictions and push some policies. We also needed application control and user personalization features that weren't in VMware, but we found all those features in AppSense.

AppSense is a third-party product not supported by Microsoft, similar to FSLogix, another user personalization software, but AppSense requires some complex configuration. You'll need the AppSense database server and then the AppSense application server, which means you'll also need the failover server. You need more than five or six servers in the environment hosted under the user profile, and then you'll need to make configurations on the device.

I would rate the initial setup for AppSense as eight out of ten because of some unknown configurations and additional configurations for management policies which you still need to do. There's also application control; if you are doing different configurations, you must be very sure about how to do it for your virtual desktop environment.

For example, in application control, you must identify the application you want to push the control for the devices across the organization. You have to be very careful about what you deploy and whether it will create any impact on the end users.

Regarding the time it took to deploy AppSense, if you have more than twenty thousand devices and segregate the deployment by phase, it would take at least two to three months. This covers the initial stage, then completing the configurations and validation of the server and identifying which devices you want to push the policies onto. After validation, you must do a mass rollout of the AppSense agent onto the virtual devices.

We had to bring in a Microsoft configuration manager to implement AppSense, as AppSense is just an agent with six modules. There's the EPM module for the environment manager, management and application control, and a few more AppSense configurations, so more than six or seven other configurations.

I would rate AppSense pricing as six out of ten because it's an expensive product, and the organization won't buy if it only requires limited configuration. For example, if you want to do user profile personalization, you can do it for free via FSLogixor and opt for a less costly solution, such as VMware versus AppSense. With VMware, you can reuse licenses and still do user profile personalization. However, if you need additional features, AppSense is one product you should consider.

I'm not aware if my company pays the AppSense license monthly or yearly because it's the procurement team that handles software and licensing.

At least four to five people are required for the 24 x 7 maintenance of AppSense. For example, we want to move user profiles to some other delivery group where we don't want application control in case of any DNS change, firewall, or port blocking. In that case, we need support to make the configuration changes in AppSense.

More than twenty thousand people use AppSense in the virtual environment.

From the support perspective, my company has a team of more than five or six professionals taking care of all DR activities, AppSense configuration management, the policy side, the application control side, and other activities. Still, if my company hires more people on virtual desktop environments, then my company has to purchase more AppSense licenses.

I would tell new users of AppSense to first go with the community license and use the product for at least one or two months. To do this, you need to contact Ivanti sales. If you like the configuration, you can continue paying and using AppSense, despite its higher pricing.

AppSense is an excellent product with many features, such as user profile personalization, desktop control, application control, redirection, and policy configuration. However, it's too expensive, so I'd rate it as nine out of ten. From a configuration perspective, AppSense is a great product, but from the cost perspective for smaller organizations, the cost should be at a lower range.

My company is an Ivanti customer.