It was only just a few months ago when our blog about Unified Endpoint Management discussed how the context and acronym of UEM has evolved, and the need for IT to manage their users’ desktops shows no sign of slowing down. The user’s “context” is a concept that not only encompasses the location or security profile of the user, but it also encompasses which application and desktop settings they need to do their job. Flexibility is key as IT has to deliver a consistent experience to the modern workforce. 

With that in mind, Ivanti has just announced a new, lighter flavor of our Environment Manager solution, namely Environment Manager Policy. This provides IT organizations with the required flexibility and control to solve many common problems that still exist in user environments today:

  • Goodbye to GPO Nightmares – Move Group Policy settings to EM Policy for a centralized configuration that has full auditing and history control, multi-threaded processing and far more granular targeting. Policy actions can be enforced not only at multiple stages of Logon, but also at Logoff, Session Lock/Unlock, Network Disconnect/Reconnect, Process Start/Stop. This ensures that as your users roam across devices, locations and security contexts that their desktop policy can be continuously adjusted according to their new context.
  • Bye, Bye Logon Scripts – Remove the need for complex scripting skills, wading through legacy code and user frustration caused by unreliable logon scripts. Environment Manager Policy provides a whole host of ready-made actions available through our graphical console. Rapidly customize the user’s desktop with a huge range of conditions including AD groups, OUs, IP address, device type, and much more. This level of control also dramatically reduces the number of master Windows images required – many of our customers have just one!
  • Eliminate Slow Logons – Environment Manager Policy uses a multi-threaded engine that can be executed on a wide range of triggers within the session. It gets logon configuration applied quickly and gets the user to a desktop as soon as possible. For example, you can set up printers after the desktop has appeared and the user is beginning to work. You can also apply Microsoft Office configurations “Just In Time” when the first Office application launches instead of at logon.

Don’t take my word for it – check out the video below which demonstrates how exactly we solve these issues in a fraction of the time taken by legacy methods.

GPO_EMPO

GPO_EMPO from Ivanti Software on Vimeo.

Let Environment Manager Policy Resolve Your Project Headaches

It isn’t just the familiar problems above that we can assist with. Below are a few examples of how we can optimize and accelerate IT projects today and tomorrow:

  • Simplify Windows 10 Migrations – Our customers want a simple way to ensure that users don’t lose any of their key data or settings during an OS upgrade. Our new Windows 10 Migration Accelerator is available on the Ivanti Marketplace and provides a ready-made configuration for Environment Manager Policy that ensures our users are delighted after the Windows 10 migration.
  • Office 365 – We now offer Cache Roaming for Virtual Sessions that solves common Outlook performance issues with virtual desktops as your organization moves to cloud-hosted mailboxes.
  • DaaS/Cloud Hosted Desktops – Environment Manager gives central management of desktop policies no matter where the user is, or where the desktop is hosted. Customize application access shortcuts and dynamically configure a whitelist using our contextual conditions to ensure compliance and to reduce application licensing costs. Conditions are not limited to domain-joined virtual or physical desktops, allowing for ultimate flexibility.

Flexible Deployment

One benefit of Environment Manager Policy is that there is no dependency on server or database infrastructure. Customers can deploy configurations via their existing application and application deployment methods. Those of you who read our recent article on Microsoft Intune/Autopilot will be glad to know that you can even use this method to ensure policy is applied to new Windows 10 machines as they are enrolled in Intune. 

So, this sounds great, but why would I choose Policy instead of the ‘Full’ option? 

Environment Manager Personalization is still very much in our plans and is a key part of our customers IT ecosystem.  The capabilities that the Full license offers include: Advanced Profile Roaming/Rollback, a Service Desk Web Interface to manage User Profile Settings, Cached Offline Support, Application “Learning mode” for optimal profile persistence and End User Self Service (users manage their own profile backups without need for Service Desk assistance). You can see the full feature comparison here, and upgrading from Environment Manager Policy to the full version is easy.

Visit the new Environment Manager Policy page on Ivanti.com where you can read further about our capabilities, hear about the Power of Policy directly from customer case studies and even sign up for a free trial!