Login Consultants touts lightweight automation tools for desktop and server deployments

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1 Login Consultants touts lightweight automation tools for desktop and server deployments Analyst: John Abbott 13 Jan, 2015 Login Consultants has been building new product businesses out of its custom development tools for the last several years. The latest to emerge is Automation Machine, which has a set of lightweight application deployment tools for managing dynamic Windows infrastructure. Stand-alone versions have been available since 2012, but at the end of last year, the desktop infrastructure consultancy firm delivered the latest version: Automation Machine 2015 (AM 2015). Login started building out the tools because customers were struggling with the management complexities of hosted desktop infrastructure services. The idea is to provide a standard, automated method of deploying services rapidly and keeping them configured correctly. The 451 Take Automation Machine fills a gap in desktop and server management by providing lightweight, easy-to-use templates for keeping services configured in a standard way, as an alternative to ad hoc scripting and demand for this type of tool is likely to increase as the popularity of basic desktop-as-a-service offerings from Amazon, VMware and others gathers pace. AM 2015 also slots into the other desktop tools and services that Login has developed. Long term, however, the proof of Automation Machine's success will be how widely it is adopted beyond Login's own existing customer base, and whether it becomes established as a fully independent business. It bodes well that another Login Consultants division, Login VSI, appears to be well on its way toward that point. Copyright The 451 Group 1

2 Context Automation Machine is a division of IT services and software provider Login Consultants, based in the Netherlands, with offices in Germany, Belgium and the US. The company, which has specialized in end-user computing since it was founded in 2002, has more than 150 consultants with expertise in Microsoft, Citrix and VMware. Revenue in 2014 reached about 20m ($24m). Although consultancy is Login's primary business, it has also developed a series of software tools within its own technology research labs, and these tools provided the basis for its incubation of three spinoffs. The first, founded in 2008, was Immidio, the developer of Flex Profiles, which in February 2010 received its first outside funding from Solid Ventures. Login VSI followed in 2012 with its virtual desktop performance testing tools and the company claims that division has seen compound annual growth rates of over 200%. Automation Machine is the newest to emerge, and has focused on simplifying and automating the management of the workspace. It's still a lean operation, with just two full-time and three outsourced developers. Immidio is now essentially separate and has its own management team, but Login VSI and Automation Machine are still run by the top management of the entire group: Eric-Jan van Leeuwen (CEO), Gerhard van der Zwan (CFO) and Jeroen van de Kamp (CTO). Products The origins of Automation Machine came out of a realization at Login that server-based computing was just too complex to administer with existing desktop management tools from Microsoft, Alteris and others. So around 2005, the company began writing its own scripts for clients around Citrix Installation Manager, and found it was able to manage a farm of 900 servers with just four administrators. Having learned through real-life scenarios where the most admin time was being spent, the next stage was to package up those automated tasks in a standardized format, and then to build an easier test environment to try out the changes before they reached the production environment. Two years ago, Login realized that the model could be extended beyond server-based computing to SQL Server farms and other server applications. The idea was to capture detailed configuration settings, keep them consistent, and automate server deployment and maintenance tasks where there are the most changes. Automation Machine first emerged as a stand-alone toolset in AM 2014 release 2 came out in May last year; AM 2015 came out in November, with release 2 due in May this year. It automates Copyright The 451 Group 2

3 the deployment and management of Windows infrastructure on-premises or in the cloud. Large server farms can be deployed with identical configurations, and changes can be applied rapidly with much less chance of error. It handles software deployment, on-demand system configuration, system and application handling, and the rapid creation of OS images (including applications and configurations). Temporary testing and user acceptance environments can be instantly created and maintained. Citrix XenApp and Microsoft RDS application publication is supported, as are user environments and profiles on virtual desktop environments. The software is implemented in a lightweight architecture consisting of a file-based XML database on the AM server and a nonintrusive agent on the client, implemented as a PowerShell module, which provides the user interface to create and configure new instances. It's quick to install and scalable, because every server does its own configuration. Infrastructure is organized around three concepts: packages, layers and collections. Packages are the basic building blocks to automatically deploy, secure, configure and update end-user applications like Microsoft Office, SQL Server, SharePoint and Citrix XenApp or packages created by end users for other apps, based on templates. Layers can be used to combine one or more packages into logical sets for instance, a common layer for packages that deploy the virus scanner or Java runtime environments. The third concept, collections, is used to represent groups of computers in the datacenter with common configurations, which are kept uniform for predictable behavior. Packages and layers are deployed to the appropriate collections. AM 2015 adds blueprints that can turn automated deployments of applications, servers or complete environments such as 'Citrix XenApp production farm' or 'Microsoft SQL cluster' into reusable templates that can be used for similar environments or for testing. There's also support for user-installed applications within VDI setups, and support for the latest version of XenApp, 7.5. It requires Windows Server 2012, the.net framework 4.5 and PowerShell version 3.0 to run. Strategy Automation Machine is focused on automated builds and configuration, but it fits into the wider stack of tools developed over the years by Login, including profile management and the Login VSI tools for testing the performance and scalability of virtualized desktops using simulated workloads, currently on version 4.1. Login VSI has recently been extended with a new add-on to test storage capacity. And last year, the division introduced a new product, Login Performance Insights (previously known as Login VUM, which stands for virtual user monitoring). Copyright The 451 Group 3

4 Unlike most other monitoring tools, Login PI simulates virtual users, and reports on the performance metrics to predict and discover what end users are experiencing. Predictive monitoring and testing is one of three broad areas Login is focusing on for 2015 the other two are change management and design/implementation/migration tools and services, both tailored for end-user workspaces. Login has also established two key partnerships: with VMware for its Login Online Desktop for cloud customers, and with Colt for workspace solutions. It will continue to develop new tools in its R&D labs. As these mature, they may be spun off like Immidio, or at least run as separate divisions, so they can be sold independently from the Login Consultancy business. Competition Automation Machine is an attempt to simplify server and desktop deployment and configuration. Most automation tools are aimed at large enterprises and are complex in themselves, often requiring additional scripting and developer-level skillsets to operate them. And the results are typically not reusable. Prime examples of large and complex tools include Microsoft's System Center Configuration Manager and VMware's vrealize Automation (previously known as vcloud Automation Center, or vcac), but there are plenty more from the likes of HP, BMC, IBM and CA Technologies. RES Software's Automation and Workspace Manager products are also comparable to AM, although broader in reach. More recent (and more flexible) tools from the open source community such as Puppet and Chef could provide a bigger competitive threat, but there's plenty of simplification work to do there too. CFEngine, Chef (Opscode) and Puppet Labs have all gained name recognition with our enterprise-respondent community recently. Login's model of spinning software tools out using the experience it has gained from consultancy reminds us of the model used by the UK's Centrix Software, also focused on desktop services and tools, although the coverage area isn't quite the same. SWOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses AM 2015 provides a lightweight, easy-to-use alternative to heavyweight developer-oriented tools for keeping services configured in a standard way. Opportunities Threats Automation Machine is currently part of a consultancy business. It will need to break free from that arrangement at some point to make it as a pure software house. Copyright The 451 Group 4

5 More complex tools can turn out to be more expensive than continuing to do tasks manually. Simpler lightweight tools could open up automation options for the broader market. The popularity of basic desktop-as-a-service offerings from Amazon, VMware and others gathers pace that's a short-term opportunity for Login but gradually, the gaps in these current offerings will be filled in. Copyright The 451 Group 5

6 Reproduced by permission of The 451 Group; This report was originally published within 451 Research's Market Insight Service. For additional information on 451 Research or to apply for trial access, go to: Copyright The 451 Group 6