AppExpress - ahead of the rest?
There is a discussion over on iii BB as to why Microsoft and Citrix would, could or should have any involvement with Endeavors AppExpress other than the settlement of the patent lawsuits recently.
My take on this having read the Competitive Analysis handout from the AGM (you can have a copy if you email me on uvegottalaugh@supawoman.com) is as follows:
Both companies bought streaming companies who were already in breach of patents and there are different ways of these things being settled. Go to court or court the patent holders.
Basically Endeavors hold the widest portfolio of earliest patents available for streaming and therefore the other companies needed to settle in some shape or form. My guess is that having reviewed the capabilities of AppExpress et al, they realised that not only were the patents the earliest but also the functionality of the product was superior for some aspects of business therefore yes they had bought the right products for themselves for some elements of business or industry, but not necessarily for all aspects.
You could therefore guess that perhaps they thought that instead of fighting, or just settling, that they also negotiated to use elements of the product that they did not currently have within their own products but wanted to be able to offer to their clients if the need arose at some point. That would perhaps result in licencing elements not already included in the lawsuits.
AppExpress - Differentiators (part of Competitive Analysis Doc)
- Strong license compliance tool / anti piracy tool
- Fastest time to launch amongst all streaming delivery technologies
- Online / Offline with license control
- Single server scales to thousands of users
- Local print & data versus other remote access apps
- Avoids app conflicts or clashes with other app versions
- Seamless desktop integration
- Datacenter support (scaling, failover and delivering large software over the Internet)
AppExpress, against the 3 main competitors of Citrix, Appstream and Microsoft, is the only one with offline access. This could be vital for companies who have field workers who can only get internet access at home or at the office unless they are operating in a wi-fi area.
Provisioning, Audit & Profiling is either incomplete support or not supported by the others, while AppExpress provides
- Asset tracking, auditing, and provisioning support
- Optional tracking and SPLA reporting available
I could go on, but you'd be better reading their report yourself rather than me trying to replicate it here, however, the point I would suggest that makes it important not to completely dismiss any future dealings with the competition is, that the products are different and it would therefore depend on who and where the competition are targeting for business as to whether they may benefit from a good relationship with Endeavors.
Food for thought perhaps.
