Remote PC access is invaluable for remote workers or others on the move who need to access the files and applications stored on their work or home PCs when they are not sat in front of them. Rival Citrix got into this space with the $225m acquisition of ExpertCity in December 2003, which gave it hosted remote desktop and collaboration tools including the GoToMyPC brand.
But it was Laplink that made the headlines in May this year, when Microsoft announced it had made an unspecified investment in Laplink, licensing the small private company’s key technologies that extend Windows functionality by allowing secure connections between PCs across the internet.
According to Laplink’s Koll, however, his company has little to fear from Microsoft or Citrix. It would be stupid not to worry, I agree with Intel’s Andy Groves that you should be totally paranoid and look closely at what the competition is doing, he said. But I do not fear them. If they do something I know that we can do it better.
Koll argued that Citrix is focused on its core business – a full remote access experience that includes its flagship Presentation Server for providing on-demand access to centrally deployed applications – and thus not as focused on remote PC access, which is where Citrix’s GoToMyPC brand plays.
As for potential competition from its recent investor Microsoft, which is thought to be adding more and more remote access functionality to forthcoming versions of Windows, Koll said: I do not know what they will do with it [the intellectual property Microsoft has licensed from Laplink]. Microsoft is a very big company, and small companies can outpace big companies because every decision does not have to go through 1,000 committees.
Koll said one of the reasons that he accepted the investment from Microsoft and Microsoft’s licensing of much of Laplink’s IP, is that since he used to work at Microsoft – where he was corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Network Solutions Group – he know[s] them too well; so I don’t fear them.
Koll conceded that it is likely that there will be additional remote access functionality built into the next versions of Microsoft Windows and Office, saying that, We will have to make sure that we do it better than them and take more creative approaches.
On the announcement of the investment in Laplink, Microsoft’s Kenneth Lustig, managing director of intellectual property acquisitions and investment, said the deal, Demonstrates our commitment to meeting the needs of an increasingly global and mobile workforce.
Meanwhile Koll pointed to a key differentiator between it and its closest rival, Citrix’s GoToMyPC. While Citrix gives remote users a near-identical view of their remote desktop from either a browser or a special viewer, Laplink does this but also offers a quick entrance to the email stored on the remote PC, as well as offering Google desktop search of the remote PC, and other dedicated interfaces into remote contacts, calendaring, email folders and the like.
Our level of innovation shows that we can outpace the competition, said Koll.
However Koll’s assertion that Citrix is not particularly focused on its GoToMyPC product line is offset somewhat by the fact that Citrix was very quick to refute Laplink’s recent assertion than Citrix GoToMyPC requires a cumbersome client download. GoToMyPC’s product line manager Jason Randall told Computer Business Review that there is the option of a browser-based client or a special viewer download, and that even the viewer download is only 400K or less.
Competitors to Laplink, Citrix and Microsoft in the remote PC access space include Access Remote PC, Network Streaming, RealVNC, Anyplace Control and 3am Labs’ Log Me In.
