VMblog:  As a Citrix Synergy 2019 sponsor, give us the rundown of your booth setup this year and let attendees know how they can find you at the show.

Jason Smith:  We're a silver sponsor this year on booth #401 and this is a special year for Liquidware – it's our tenth birthday! Liquidware was founded in 2009, initially as the 'on ramp' to VDI. Now, we're the de-facto choice for organizations wanting to manage their hybrid workspace environments. Whether that's physical, virtual or cloud, Liquidware provides the most comprehensive solutions for adaptive workspace management (AWM). 

VMblog:  Why should a Synergy attendee add you to their MUST SEE list?

Smith:  We're seeing more and more organizations utilizing Liquidware for managing their disparate desktop environments. User experience remains a critical factor for both productivity and employee motivation. Stratusphere UX has in-depth diagnostics and monitoring to troubleshoot but also to assist helpdesks in demonstrating that a user’s new workspace is performing as it should. Due to Stratupshere's baseline capability, you can show a user what they had before and what they now have is better than their previous environment. ProfileUnity and FlexApp are enabling many workspaces to move to the cloud. By seamlessly moving and managing your users' profiles and layered applications between physical, virtual or cloud your users don't need to know where their actual 'desktop' is, just that they can access it and their applications when they need them. FlexApp enables just in time application delivery based on context awareness, keeping base images to a minimum and saving time and money. With many companies having a 'cloud first' strategy now also means their desktops too. ProfileUnity and FlexApp both leverage object-based storage without the use of Server Message Blocks (SMB). By saving and hosting profiles and layered applications to object-based storage we are readying organizations for seamless DaaS transitions, providing high availability built in from multi-clouds and overall lowering the cost of storage. So, anyone visiting Synergy that has questions about how to best manage their users’ workspace in a hybrid and/or diverse environment, please come and talk to us!

VMblog:  If an attendee visits your booth, what's the big message that they will take back to work with them? 

Smith:  We've recently launched our new messaging abound "Adaptive Workspace Management". Liquidware has always been an innovator and ahead of the curve in terms of what our technology delivers versus the rest of the industry catching up. We realize that the term 'desktop' is effectively redundant today, and frankly there’s a plethora of desktop management solutions in the market. Today is about managing workspaces and, as we see from our customers and partners, those workspaces need to adapt to both the users and the businesses' requirements. Hence, we’ve coined the term Adaptive Workspace Management as we feel this sums up exactly what our solutions enable. Therefore, we'd like attendees to return from Synergy asking themselves, "How can I best manage my users and their workspaces the most effectively?"

VMblog:  It's great that Liquidware is celebrating its 10-year birthday!  How many Citrix Synergy shows have you done?  And what keeps you coming back for more?  Or what brings you back this year?

Smith:  Many of us at Liquidware have been attending Synergy long before it was even called that – who remembers iForum folks?! We've sponsored Citrix Synergy for all 10 of Liquidware's years. As a Citrix Ready partner, our solutions provide a great value-add on top of a Citrix deployment and over 50% of our customer base has at least some Citrix desktops in their environment. The show for us is a chance to talk to a very targeted set of users that we believe can benefit from our solutions. We also enjoy attending the keynotes and some breakout sessions but the main reason we return year after year is the community. We're very passionate about this industry and it's always great to talk to customers and prospects not just about our solutions but what is keeping them up and night and see if we might be able to help in anyway. 

VMblog:  Give readers a few reasons why your product or service is considered unique and differentiated from the competition.

Smith:  While some attendees may have tried layering in the past, they've never seen anything like FlexApp layering. In fact, FlexApp has at least 5 exclusive features that you won't find in any other layering solution in the market. Features like Click-to-Layer are ideal for Citrix published desktops and apps, allowing you to hot add an application to your Citrix environment without the need to reboot or take a server offline. 

However, when you look at the bigger picture of what Liquidware offers, you know for us what makes us truly unique? We're the only third-party independent provider for workspace environment management that seamlessly allows users to flow across ALL of your Windows desktops! Our differentiation is that we provide a comprehensive solution set that enables baselining, diagnostics, monitoring, user management and application delivery – all wrapped up in one bundle, Liquidware Essentials. 

VMblog:  How does your company work or partner with Citrix?  What value add do you provide? 

Smith:  All of our solutions are Citrix Ready verified. In fact, we just successfully completed re-verification testing through the most recent versions of Citrix Desktops and Apps. The Citrix Ready program ensures our joint customers that our solutions are fully compatible with Citrix Apps and Desktops. When customers look for Layering, User Environment Management, or Monitoring and Diagnostics that go beyond Citrix's included tools, they have no better option that Liquidware's suite of solutions known as Liquidware Essentials. 

VMblog:  What are you looking forward to most at this year's event?

Smith:  Since Liquidware has a major office in the Atlanta area, many of us looking forward to this being the first Synergy that we do not have to get on a plane. :)  We're also looking forward to seeing new solutions like Microsoft WVD make its debut to a wider audience.

VMblog:  As someone who has attended Synergy so many times, what would you say to prospective attendees who are thinking about attending the show but aren't sure if it's worth it or not?

Smith:  As a sponsor we, of course, want as many people as possible to attend. But our main advice to anyone 'on the fence' about attending is, there is nothing more valuable than face-to-face meetings with your peers.  Not only are we a Synergy sponsor, we also sponsor many Citrix User Group (CUGC) meetings across the globe. The community aspect of Citrix Synergy – whether that's Citrix personnel, vendors or peers – is invaluable and so, if you have a chance to attend, we can't recommend it highly enough!

VMblog:  And do you have any special tips for attendees to help make their event go more smoothly?

Smith:  Check out in advance the sessions you want to attend and get them booked in. Wear comfortable shows. Drink LOTS of water and keep hydrated. And don't party too hard - get some sleep too!

VMblog:  Why do you think the EUC market is picking up steam right now?  What's changed?

Smith:  We fundamentally believe that Cloud and DaaS is a game changer. We know many organizations have - or are – implementing a cloud-first strategy but to date this has been from a server/infrastructure perspective. There are many cloud-based options including those from Citrix and Amazon and with Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) pending, and Nutanix Xi Frame desktop around the corner, enterprise-ready DaaS options abound. 2019 is turning into the year of DaaS!

VMblog:  Attendees always enjoy a good trade show giveaway.  What can an attendee hope to get at your booth?

Smith:  We always have something unique and this year will be no different. Attendees will have to stop by to find out just what it is! 

VMblog:  Okay, keeping the giveaway close to the vest I see.  What about any type of parties or events that you might be throwing while at the show.  Can you share the details? 

Smith:  We're the creator and inaugural sponsor of "Inside Track," a community for EUC influencers for a couple of years now. This group is open to bloggers, media, and well-known community leaders. There will be a private event for this group and members will be notified.

We're also hosting a dinner celebration for our 10th Birthday and invitations will be going out to our customers, prospects, and partners. There will even be a surprise desert! Seats are limited so if you see an invitation from us grab it quick and RSVP ASAP.