DesktopStandard Corporation Is Acquired by Microsoft

Check out this recent press release! Expect to see some goodness as far as GPO's go from Microsoft now!

Jim

 

DesktopStandard Corporation Is Acquired by Microsoft

Customers can continue to purchase DesktopStandard products

Portsmouth, NH - October 2, 2006 – DesktopStandard Corporation, a leading developer of Group Policy-based enterprise desktop management products, today announced it has been acquired by Microsoft Corp. The addition of DesktopStandard demonstrates Microsoft’s commitment to help customers leverage the value of policy-based management and maximize the value of their investments in Microsoft Active Directory.

“Joining with Microsoft will allow DesktopStandard to more quickly meet our goal of helping customers extend Group Policy to handle the majority of their distributed management tasks and to provide a more manageable environment for doing so,” said DesktopStandard’s CTO and cofounder Eric Voskuil, who will join Microsoft’s Windows Enterprise Management Division in the role of Software Architect. “Customers will benefit now and into the future as our innovative team joins Microsoft in building the future of model-based policy management technologies.”

DesktopStandard was chosen by Microsoft to supplement its Group Policy technology because of DesktopStandard’s:

• Experience in policy-based management and tight integration with native Group Policy
• Mature, Award-winning products that are proven in deployments
• Broad and loyal customer base
• Talented employees who are motivated to help customers succeed

“DesktopStandard products are already seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Group Policy and are completely complementary with Microsoft technology,” said Larry Orecklin, General Manager, 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 while the DesktopStandard technology is transitioned to Microsoft. Customers can continue to purchase GPOVault®, ProfileMaker, PolicyMaker™ Standard Edition and Share Manager from DesktopStandard and existing partners. ProfileMaker will be available only from existing DesktopStandard partners. Microsoft will continue to support customers according to the terms and conditions of existing agreements. Microsoft is not acquiring the PolicyMaker™ Application Security business.

PolicyMaker™ Application Security will be exclusively available from BeyondTrust™ Corporation, formerly a wholly-owned subsidiary of DesktopStandard. BeyondTrust is focused on enterprise security products that eliminate the need for security administrators to place trust in computers or users. BeyondTrust will continue to develop, sell and support PolicyMaker Application Security under the product name, BeyondTrust™ Privilege Manager.

John Moyer, DesktopStandard’s CEO and cofounder, states, “It is an exciting opportunity to move forward with BeyondTrust at a time when organizations are focused on increasing protection from zero-hour exploits, data theft, and unauthorized malicious use.” Moyer will be joining BeyondTrust in the position of CEO. “By enabling the security best practice of Least Privilege with BeyondTrust Privilege Manager organizations find that they not only achieve these security goals, but also increase business productivity and regulatory compliance.”

Press contact information:
DesktopStandard and BeyondTrust Corporation
Tony Keller
S&S Public Relations
(719) 634-8279
tony@sspr.com


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