AppSense has grown from a UK-based company that started off specialising in thin client deployments and Citrix software. The company's engineers saw a need for some tools to assist with their work, and the project snowballed to become what is today a very comprehensive, refined collection of thin client tools. The software suite is now AppSense's core business.AppSense's product is a suite of individual applications, namely Performance Manager, Application Manager, Optimizer, and Server Based Toolkit. These applications can either be purchased individually or as the total AppSense Performance suite.
Seeing that AppSense's product is a suite of four individual applications, the two that fit this review specifically are the AppSense Performance Manager and AppSense Optimizer. Performance Manager allows the administrator to control the server processor and memory usage and also has some security benefits. Optimizer increases the server's capacity by focusing on the efficient use of virtual memory and on specific application components such as common DLLs and ActiveX controls.
The installation of this application was a piece of cake, the CD automatically ran the install/setup routine when it was inserted, its default settings were to install the whole suite, however we selected custom install and just installed the two accelerator applications (Performance Monitor and Optimizer). The rest of the installation was fully automated. The system relies on a common data store and also has a deployment management console built in.
As Figures 1 and 2 show, the administration and configuration is via a very easy to use Microsoft Management Console (MMC). The console is mainly text based, however it is still very user friendly. The MMC used in the Expedian/TScale applications is far more graphical.
This is a very refined suite of applications definitely a lot of work has gone into its development from people who are obviously well versed in server-centric environments. For a total solution, one would be hard pressed to go past the AppSense Performance Suite.
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| Product | AppSense Perfomance Suite |
| Price | AU$4,995 |
| Vendor | AppSense |
| Phone | 1300 767 550 |
| Web | www.appsense.com |
| Interoperability |  |
| Good range of software/hardware supported. | |
| Futureproofing |  ½ |
| Excellent feature set. | |
| ROI |  ½ |
| Well priced, providing the site has at least a quad-processor server and at least 20-30 terminals | |
| Service |  ½ |
| AU$1,098.90 for 12-month software subscription; on part with Jetro. | |
| Rating |  |
