User environment management

User environment management (also abbreviated to UEM) is the management of a computer user's experience within their desktop environment.

In a modern workplace an organisation grants each user access to an operating system and the applications required for their role, applying corporate policy to ensure the user has appropriate access levels. This typically includes items such as the filesystems, printers and applications they should and shouldn’t have access to. Within this framework, each user has a preferred way of operating and they make a number of changes to enable them to work most efficiently. Common user changes are email signatures, language settings and the environment ‘look and feel’.

The combination of the corporate policy and user preference is described as the ‘user personality’. Users form an attachment to their PCs, but “their attachment is not to the device itself, but to the way in which they do their jobs today”.

Managing user personalization is complicated, with a large number of factors and variables to be considered. As the desktop computing environment has evolved, the methods for delivering the desktop and applications have grown, further compounding the complexity involved in managing the user’s personality.

The personal computer was originally introduced to the workplace as a standalone device. Over time these were networked and network-attached storage was introduced to enable resources and information to be shared. A number of advancements and new technologies from software companies have extended and improved this model. Citrix provides the ability to store the desktop environment centrally and publish it to remote users. Microsoft acquired some of this technology to develop their terminal server solution.

Virtualization is a technology that evolved from the mainframe computer, initially into the x86 architecture servers and now enables virtualized desktop environments. This is largely led by VMware and Citrix. A further technology, application streaming, offers an alternative method for delivering applications to users. Softricity were the leading company specializing in this technology before being bought by Microsoft who take the solution to market as Microsoft Application Virtualization.

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