Scense 8 released

Last week Scense released their latest version of their workspace management product Scense 8. In their latest release they have been working towards giving ICT management more control over workspaces that aren’t connected to the corporate network on regular basis.

One of the biggest changes they have made is moving away from the DCOM-protocol and start using the HTTP-protocol. This is now possible because Scense is now supporting Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) which enables them to run on Internet Information Services (IIS). Running on IIS will give the product more scalability and use of other protocols (see image below). With the use of the HTTP-protocol, Scense is now able to offer its services over the internet including application distribution.

Another new feature is the ‘location services‘. This service enables the administrators to create a tree of locations. Each location can have a set of applications and resources that are available for the user on that location. A location can be either an entire building or floor within this building.

The location service is used in conjunction with the new feature called ‘context awareness‘. Scense 8 now has scopes which are a collection of criteria. These criteria are used to define a group of users or devices. Each scope can then be used to define the applications and resources available for the user(s) or device(s).

With Scense 8 there is now a printer page available within the Scense client. This page enables users to easily search for printers that are available and provide them with additional information on the features of the printer. Installation of the selected printer will be done by the client and no user interaction will be needed. Administrators will be able to set a default printer for certain locations.

One of the features that Scense has enhanced is ‘Live Profiles‘. In Scense 8 users will be able to revert application and windows settings to a previous state. Also the settings for applications will be synchronized, giving users the same settings on both the corporate and private devices.

Also worth mentioning is that Scense 8 now supports Windows Server 2012, SQL server 2012 and Windows 8.

This latest release makes it possible for organizations to support both users and administrators with the BYOD concept. For those of you that are willing to try Scense 8, you can download a trial here.