In the past years PQR, together with several members of the community, worked to create a couple of whitepapers to compare different solutions to one another. These whitepapers have been valuable in IT.

One of these whitepapers is the UEM Smackdown, it’s an overview of all the UEM solutions on the market, what they do and what they don’t. The last version is found here. 

For those who are wondering, UEM stands for User Environment Management, it’s everything you do with profiles, logon scripts, policy and more.

What is it used for?

One misconception about the whitepaper is that it’s a race, the one with the most marks wins. Although it might seem like that, it’s far from a race.

Think of the whitepaper as your lifeline in picking the right solution for your environment, if you don’t know which solution is able to do what, how can you choose the right one. Before this whitepaper or without this whitepaper, solutions or products are chosen because some sales guy says they are the best. Their product rocks and you need it and by the way you get a 10 no even a 15% discount.

I don’t think you should buy products with that much impact on your employees from a sales perspective, you should choose what fits your organisation best. That’s where this whitepaper comes into play, you set the goals we provide the matrix, you choose the one that fits you best. Don’t need security, don’t pick one with security embedded, Performance is key, check the boxes read the text and find the one that suits you. 

Version

The UEM smackdown is currently at version 2.1, created in 2014 and is far far behind. If I look at the vendors and the release numbers I can’t but realize we need to update the whitepaper.

If we look at the versions of products we end up with this list, and then you see it’s outdated.

Product	Version
AppSense Environment Manager	8.4 SP2
AppSense Performance Manager	8.1
AppSense Application Manager	8.7
Citrix User Profile Manager	3.1
Immidio Flex+	8.1
Liquidware Labs ProfileUnity	5.7
Microsoft Windows Server and Client	2008 R2 and 7
Microsoft User Experience Virtualization	2.0
PolicyPak Professional	Build 557
Quest vWorkspace	7.2
RES Workspace Manager	2012 SR3
Scense User Workspace Management	8.1
Tricerat Simplify Suite	5.5
Unidesk	2.5

If we look at the current versions of product we see that all vendors have gone forward.

Product	Version	Nu
AppSense Environment Manager	8.4 SP2	8.6
AppSense Performance Manager	8.1	8.3
AppSense Application Manager	8.7	8.9
Citrix User Profile Manager	3.1	5.2
Immidio Flex+	8.1	VMware UEM now
Liquidware Labs ProfileUnity	5.7	6
Microsoft Windows Server and Client	2008 R2 and 7	2012R2 and 10
Microsoft User Experience Virtualization	2.0	2.1
PolicyPak Professional	Build 557
Quest vWorkspace	7.2	8.6.1
RES Workspace Manager	2012 SR3	2015
Scense User Workspace Management	8.1	10
Tricerat Simplify Suite	5.5	5.8
Unidesk	2.5	3.4
VMware UEM		8.7

I think these are the last versions but if you see an error please let me know, finding  version on vendor sites is one of the hardest things to do. This is what I found and I will update it in the document as we proceed to make it right.

The matrix is the most important part of the document, with check marks, crosses and other symbols a product feature is checked. That’s all we do, we check the feature to show if it is offered, not or partly. 

Creating a smackdown or updating it, is going by the list of features and checking the marks there. Reading up on release notes, installing, looking at features, contacting vendors. It’s a fun business. …and remember, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, not in telling you it tastes great.

I’m not superman, my kids thought so until they got about 6 years old realizing I’m also merely a human with failures. Updating this, reviewing it is a huge huge task. from previous updating/creating sessions I know, we know that it takes hours, days, weeks of your time.

So I’m reaching out to you guys out there, I’m looking for IT cracks with knowledge of some products listed above. We got some covered but not all products are sold by PQR and therefore the knowledge is missing or rusty. 

What if 100 people want to help?

That would be awesome but wouldn’t work, in updating we need a small group of people really checking features and others doing fact checking. I put a mark somewhere and someone else checks if that is valid. It’s a process where we want to make sure we don’t get the marketing answer but real solid proof.

Can’t you find PQR colleagues to help you?

Sure my colleagues will put in many many hours to get this done, it’s important for us to get it updated. We are proud of these documents. However, we like the community and want to give other a chance to step out and get exposure. How cool is it to be listed as a contributor of this document and use it in a workshop or design. 

What products do you sell (and have knowledge about)?

We do sell and have knowledge about RES, VMware, Citrix and Microsoft but still reviewers are needed to validate some of those. Don’t trust our blue eyes.

Interested?

If you’re interested reach out and let’s see if I can find you a nice job during Christmas and beyond. you can reach me through twitter @robbeekmans or at rbe@pqr.nl.

With that I conclude with wishing you;