As I am always working and/or spending time with my family, it is tough to find the extra time needed to test/research what is out there on the TS market. But a couple weeks ago during my trip to Ireland (yes people, I AM available if you need a TS consultant on-site, just contact me! And by the way I charge extremely reasonable rates. ) I had the chance to play with a product that is getting its name out there but still slowly. The product was the Provision Management Framework, Enterprise Edition from Provision Networks.

Before people start shouting and before I say anything about it, I must say I am NOT affiliated to them or to ANY other company and I do not endorse the use of any product; I am simply expressing my views on this product, what I like, what I hate and so on. Simple as that.

So what I like? Well everything, I mean EVERYTHING, that I think it would be useful and would complement terminal services is there. Published apps? Check. Web Interface? Check. Single SignOn? Check. Seamless Windows? Check. SSL Proxy? Check. As you can see, pretty much everything Citrix PS4.0 offers is there. I tried it and most of its features (like the profile management one that does the same as FlexProfiles) and all I can say is I am impressed. If you are looking for something like Citrix, give this a try.

Ok so what I did not like? Well the interface is kind of cumbersome. After you get used to it, ok. But it could be improved for sure. Secondly you cannot have more than one instance of their management console opened! Documentation is poor at this moment (does not cover the whole Framework) but their support is quick. And they do NOT include README files with their hotfixes! They are there on their website but you must download them separately. Please add both to one single download… And finally, the price. US$ 99 is ok but could be better. If they reduce the price a little bit I am sure they will sell way more and make more money at the end.

Some other things will be coming out soon like Virtual IP support, closing the gap even further when compared to Citrix. So, keep an eye on their product!

The other product I have seen last week (but did not have time to play with it yet) is the XPTS 1.2 from WBisoft. Apparently Seamless Windows with Single SignOn and Load Balancing are there. And all this for US$ 235.00 per SERVER! Wow! In a way it reminds me of my own experience when I was heading Terminal-Services.NET. As you probably know I started Terminal-Services.NET back in 2001 and our main goal since day one was to provide easy-to-use yet affordable add-ons for TS. In a way this is the same approach used by WBisoft! I will make sure I try the product and comment on it here. If it does what it says, I see no reason why small companies, with one or two TSs would not use something like this. Impressive on paper. Let’s see on my lab.