VMblog:  Your company is sponsoring this year's VMware Explore event.  Can you talk about what that sponsorship looks like?

Jason E. Smith:  Liquidware is 13 years old this year and we've attended every VMworld - and now VMware Explore - since we launched back in 2009. With EUC being a relatively small - but important - part of VMware's overall business, this is reflected in the show so we've never taken a massive booth at the show. However, in previous years there was an EUC ‘zone' which helped attendees to identify vendors focused on that part of the IT stack. This year it's all one zone, probably due to the fact that fewer attendees are expected. So, we've remained with a 10x10 booth, and you can find us in booth #1804. We're excited to be announcing and demonstrating a brand new product at VMware Explore - read on to find out more!

VMblog:  VMware has decided to change the name of the event this year from VMworld to VMware Explore.  With VMworld being such a part of the history, do you have any thoughts on the name change?

Smith:  Personally, I like VMworld and feel there is some ‘pedigree' to the name, and there is a lot of brand equity in it. However, now is probably a good time for a name change but I guess it makes the show even more VMware-specific, whereas I felt VMworld was more of an industry event.

VMblog:  What are your thoughts and expectations with the event being in person again instead of just a digital / online event?  Are attendees ready for this?  Do you anticipate the crowd size of VMworld pre-pandemic?

Smith:  Aside from any personal health concerns, which is understandable, enterprise customers and prospects that are serious about staying up to date with a key part of the industry will be at this show but there are indications that attendance will be down because of recent world events. If anyone is thinking of skipping because of the pending Broadcom acquisition, we think they should reconsider. Now is the time that your enterprise should be deciding what precautions it will take to safeguard its business continuity plans in the face of this major acquisition. Now is also the time to gauge your comfort level with VMware's plan going forward. What better place to check the pulse than in person at VMware Explore? 

VMblog:  What are you personally most interested in seeing or learning at VMware Explore?

Smith:  I am anxious to see if Microsoft will have a direct "AVD on VMware Horizon" presence and demo at the show, either in their own booth or VMware's. Microsoft AVD is of great interest to VMware customers, especially in the face of the pending Broadcom acquisition.

VMblog:  Can you give us the high-level rundown of your company's technology offerings?  What kind of message will an attendee hear from you this year?

Smith:  Our high level messaging is we are a leader in digital workspace management solutions for Windows desktops. But what does this really mean? We de-couple your reliance on any workspace platform for end users, making it easy to migrate users to or from your current VDI, DaaS, or physical workspaces. For example, you can easily move users from Citrix to VMware or VMware to Citrix or move to native AVD, or co-exist all any mixture of platforms without any user downtime. Our products encompass all facets of management to ensure the ultimate user experience across all workspaces - physical, virtual, DaaS, or in the cloud. We have Stratusphere^TM UX for digital experience monitoring, ProfileUnity^TM for user experience management and FlexApp^TM for application layering and portability.

VMblog:  Talking about your product solutions, can you give readers a few examples of how your offerings are unique?  What are your differentiators?  What sets you apart from the competition?

Smith:  There is no other vendor that provides platform-agnostic digital workspace management! The fact that we support all platforms that Windows can run on - physical, virtual, DaaS or cloud-based - is our most endearing differentiator, according to our customers! In today's hybrid world, we enable our customers to have the flexibility of seamlessly transitioning workloads across platforms, this provided a hugely compelling reason for more license purchase during the pandemic as organizations had to rapidly burst-scale home working environments. Stratusphere UX provided many unique or industry-first features to enable IT to monitor remote workers. ProfileUnity ensured no matter what device was being utilized, a user's desktop was as it was back in the office. And FlexApp enables applications to be delivered in a ‘just in time' fashion, keeping base image management to a minimum.

VMblog:  What specifically does your company offer a VMware shop or a VMware implementation?  What problems do you solve for them?

Smith:  In essence, we help to make a user's experience of running their Windows desktop in a VMware environment as problem-free as possible. Our digital workspace management solutions solve many of the issues encountered; such as long log-on times, corrupt profiles, lack of visibility of user's issues and app deployment. We work with many VMware partners to deliver our solutions on top of VMware Horizon to an enable a seamless user experience.

At the last in-person event, we were very proud to have FlexApp awarded Best of VMworld in the Digital Workspace category. That's a great testament to our product innovation and value in a VMware environment.

VMblog:  VMworld has typically been a launching platform for new products.  At VMware Explore, will your company be announcing anything new?  If so, can you give us a sneak peek?

Smith:  Yes! We're super excited to be announcing a brand new SaaS product called CommandCTRL. CommandCTRL is a Helpdesk remediation solution providing real-time metrics and real-time remediation, instantly. We're holding an exclusive webinar for our Inside Track community the week prior to VMware Explore where we'll divulge the features of this new product and then on the first day of the show we'll formally be announcing via a press release. So, stay tuned to learn more!!

VMblog:  VMware will be covering big topics in their keynote, but what big changes or trends do you see taking shape in the industry for 2022 and heading into 2023?

Smith:  Our customers continue to require solutions to manage a hybrid environment. Ironically, with the planned Broadcom acquisition of VMware, they are talking to us about how they ‘protect' their investment and mitigate any risk of being ‘locked in'. Our solutions help organizations to seamlessly transition their Windows workspaces across platforms. We see cloud-based desktops being a much larger part of how Windows gets delivered to organizations' users in the coming couple of years.

VMblog:  Is your company sponsoring any type of party or get together during the event?
Smith:  We're very excited to be holding a customer event in the Audi Legends Club at the Giants' game on August 29 alongside our strategic alliance partners, IGEL and LG. We've invited customers already, but if any Liquidware customer reading this hasn't received their invite, then hit up your sales rep!!