Access IT Automation Blog

META Group estimates that IT help desks on average receive 21 calls for help per user per year! If you have 10,000 users, that is 210,000 IT support tickets a year. Gartner estimates that 40% of IT help desk tickets are related to passwords, e.g., requests to reset a forgotten or lost password. Given that the cost of an L1 support ticket is between $8 and $18, an organization handling 210,000 support tickets a year could spend anywhere between $672,000 and $1,512,000 just to reset passwords!

Since the last time we officially published Capture release notes, we have made a lot of other new features, bug fixes, and updates available. This includes our new capability of automatically converting App-V source files to MSIX as well as the ability to launch and load App Volumes containers. We will write up more details on that last one very soon, but today we wanted to definitely tell you about a nifty little feature that will make things easier for a lot of our customers: an option that replaces the use of GUAC (Remote Desktop Gateway/RDP in a browser) in WinTel environments.

If the last two years have taught us anything about the importance of impactful IT investments, it is that creating an outstanding employee experience is just as important as optimizing customer experiences. While at first, organizations tried to create outstanding digital experiences to retain their customers (and sometimes even lure new ones from less agile competitors), it became very quickly apparent that employees working from home required a better set-up as well. 

Over the past few years, Access IT Automation has grown from being a provider of application packaging and testing automation solutions (Access Capture) and automated endpoint management tools (such as Access Symphony and Access FixEngine) to creating a holistic platform that allows enterprise-size organizations to not only enable Modern Desktops, but to also constantly fine-tune their environment to walk the fine line between optimizing for user performance/experience and keeping costs as low as possible. We call this balancing act Modern Workplace Experience.

When companies are considering moving to a VDI framework, they'll have to think about whether to utilize stateful or stateless VDI designs. Companies can get massive efficiencies by moving machines to VDI. Sometimes this is done in conjunction with moving to a new operating system, or in the context of other legacy migration projects. However, in the process of planning, the company will have to figure out whether it's best to incorporate a stateful or “persistent” model, or a stateless or “non-persistent” one. 

In our latest series, we will be getting to know some of the influential figures that contribute to Access IT Automations growth and development and find out with the company and what IT automation means to them. #WeEnableModern Desktop

Little did Microsoft know how much the world would need to rely on something they, in 2015, coined the "Modern Desktop" to describe a Microsoft 365, Windows 10, and Office 365 ProPlus based desktop. Its purpose is to let employees work from anywhere productively as they collaborate with their teammates while always staying up-to-date, secure, and compliant.

Today, I want to have a closer look at what we mean by Modern Desktop Enablement and why it is so crucial for any organization right now.

I heard about "The Great Resignation", a term coined by Anthony Klotz, a business professor at Texas A&M University,  only a few weeks ago. Here in the United Kingdom, we also have other issues we have to deal with right now, like the fallout of Brexit, the lorry driver visa debacle, and now the resulting fuel shortage. So I wasn't paying close attention to the US job market. At first, I couldn't make sense of the two happening simultaneously. But the more I read about it, the more I worry about how enterprises and large organizations will manage their IT in the coming two to three years. 

Most people know that Microsoft had announced that Windows 10 was going to be the last Windows ever released, but what most don't know is that even Windows 10 has had an End-of-Life date from the very beginning. As it says on Microsoft's Windows 10 Enterprise and Education Modern Lifecycle page, "Microsoft will continue to support at least one release of Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel until October 14, 2025. The below table reflects the released versions to date."

In November 2020, we showed you how you use Access Capture, our automated application packaging and testing solution, to automate your MSIX and app attach creation in order to accelerate your application modernization journey, and with it, enable your Modern Desktop including Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD).

Today, we are thrilled to show you how you can also use Access Capture to automate your VMware App Volumes creation process. App Volumes refers to a set of application and user management solutions that run on VMware Horizon, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, and RDSH virtual environments.