Microsoft Boosts PC Management with DesktopStandard Buy

Published: October 4, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft has acquired DesktopStandard, a New England developer of software to help manage and secure PCs using Active Directory's Group Policy features. The acquisition nets Microsoft several popular products that the software giant views as complementary to its own, as well as development expertise and an installed base of about 3,000 customers. The deal does not, however, include DesktopStandard's former security business, which is being spun out on its own.

DesktopStandard is a Portsmouth, New Hampshire, company that was founded by Eric Voskuil, its CTO, and John Moyer, who was its CEO before being bought by Microsoft on Tuesday for an undisclosed amount. Voskuil--who is also a third degree black belt in Okinawan Karate and a graduate of the U.S. Navy's TopGun fighter training school, according to his bio--has joined Microsoft's Windows Enterprise Management Division, where he now holds the title of software architect, while Moyer has taken the role of CEO at BeyondTrust, a former subsidiary of DesktopStandard that has been spun out to continue the development and of its PolicyMaker Application Security product.

The acquisition brings Microsoft several products designed to take the pain out of configuring PCs in enterprise-wide deployments. At the top of the list is the PolicyMaker Standard Edition product, which evolved from the company's ProfileMaker product that first debuted in 1998.

PolicyMaker Standard Edition boosts the capabilities of the Group Policy feature of Active Directory by giving users 21 additional capabilities, or Group Policy Extensions, beyond the 11 extensions offered by Microsoft, according to DesktopStandard. In short, this product lets administrators automate the process of customizing the settings of groups of PCs, including Outlook e-mail profiles, TCP/IP printer settings, registry and .ini file settings, drive maps, shared printers, file transfers, folder creation, shortcuts, environment variables, Internet settings, folder options, start menu settings, regional options, scheduled tasks, and ODBC access, among others.

This product has won numerous awards and forms the basis for other DesktopStandard products, including PolicyMaker Software Update, a Group Policy-based patch management system that works with Microsoft's patch update services. The company also developed PolicyMaker Share Manager, which centralizes the management of network shares using Windows Server 2003's Access-Based Enumeration (ABE) technology, and PolicyMaker Application Security, which DesktopStandard claims was "the first product to enable enforcement of least privilege for Windows applications." A related product, called GPOVault Enterprise, functions as an add-in to the Active Directory's Group Policy Management Console (GPMC), and keeps track of changes made to Group Policy Objects (GPOs).

As we mentioned, PolicyMaker Application Security was not part of yesterday's acquisition by Microsoft. The software giant did not specify why this product was left out. However, new security features being built into Windows Vista that will eliminate administrator-level system access as the default level of access could have something to do with it, as could the fact that the convicted monopolist is coming under increased scrutiny from European government regulators for its security product roadmap and the potential impact it could have on the market for third-party security products. In any event, PolicyMaker Application Security lives on under John Moyer's watch at www.beyondtrust.com.

Microsoft also has no plans to sell PolicyMaker Software Update. "Customers who need the functionality provided by this product should explore Windows Server Update Services as an alternative," Microsoft says in a FAQ on the DesktopStandard Web site. PolicyMaker Software Update will be supported by Microsoft for six months, giving users of this product time to look for alternatives.

Likewise, Microsoft won't sell the ProfileMaker product, although it's not killing it, either. This product will be sold only through existing DesktopStandard partners, who will also continue to sell GPOVault, PolicyMaker Standard Edition, and PolicyMaker Share Manager.

A Microsoft executive had positive things to say about the newly acquired products. "DesktopStandard products are already seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Group Policy and are completely complementary with Microsoft technology," says Larry Orecklin, general manager of Microsoft's Windows Enterprise Management Division. "This acquisition enhances our ability to meet customers' needs to perform Group Policy lifecycle management, consolidate the number of policy objects being managed, and increase desktop management functionality."

DesktopStandard will continue to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft until the DesktopStandard technology has been transitioned to Microsoft.