VMblog:  First things first, where is your booth located at VMworld 2015? 

CliQr:  Booth #801. 

VMblog:  With so many booths at VMworld, and so little time, why should an attendee put you on their "MUST SEE" list this year? 

CliQr:  CliQr is a powerful solution that extends any vCenter deployment. It offers application stack deployment in vCenter and vCloud environments, as well as more than 15 other datacenter, private and public cloud environments. Customers can create profiles of their applications in CliQr, and each profile directs both infrastructure and application automation in any environment. As a result, any vCenter customer can benefit in a wide range of uses, including simple cloud application migration, DevOps automation, dynamic capacity augmentation and deployment of a hybrid IT-as-a-Service platform with governance controls.  IT admins are under relentless pressure to do more and more.  CliQr creates a management fabric that simplifies a lot of complex work and actually makes IT life easier.

VMblog:  What do you like most about sponsoring VMworld?

CliQr:  Both CliQr founders are VMware alumni, along with many CliQr employees. So we inherently understand the value and power of our solution for VMware customers.  It's part of our company DNA.  So it's easy to talk to VMworld attendees and communicate how we can help them. And it is always fun to reconnect with VMware employees and customers we worked with in the past.

VMblog:  Can you give VMblog readers a sneak peek as to what you will be showing off at your booth this year?

CliQr:  With CliQr, it's just as easy to deploy a full application stack as it is to deploy a single VM. You can deploy an application stack to vCloud Air, AWS, Azure or any other environment just as easily as to vCenter environment. And deployment in an NSX environment is even more powerful.  With CliQr, you can automate DevOps workflows or offer self-service, on-demand, application-stack deployment.  CliQr also provides powerful governance rules and simplifies application management across multiple vCenter instances. In our booth - we'll be ready to show any or all those scenarios.

VMblog:  If you would, please explain or give readers a few reasons why your product or service is considered unique?

CliQr:  CliQr offers three key features unique to the industry: 

1 - CliQr combines an infrastructure and application-stack deployment model in one profile that works anywhere.  This seemingly obvious approach fulfills the promise of "software defined" by having the application's deployment and management requirements direct the infrastructure instead of the other way around. But it is surprising how many cloud management platforms are infrastructure focused, with application-specific and environment-specific scripting required to fill the gap. 

CliQr's unique combination of cloud-agnostic profile and a cloud-specific orchestrator deliver a simple yet powerful solution that is unique in an industry focused on infrastructure.  With CliQr, there is no cloud specific scripting and no cloud lock-in. 

2 - Cloud application management doesn't have to be hard.  Many incumbent cloud management platforms are a suite of independent point solutions.  They are hard to implement. They are hard to use, often jumping from UI to UI within a typical user workflow. They are hard to support and upgrade. 

It is easy to get started with CliQr. Our solution is designed from scratch for the challenges of managing multiple applications in multiple environments meeting the needs of multiple user groups or tenants. Our on-premises solution is easy to install, and deploying and managing applications can happen in just days, rather than months.  Our SaaS solution is even easier to use and enables users to deploy application stack deployment to any cloud just minutes after first login.  

3 - Beyond VM deployment, customers are usually delighted by how easy it is to set up self-service that is on-demand for their users.  But it is our unique governance features that really set CliQr apart for enterprise IT organizations. Users can easily move fast while making good policy decisions with CliQr's role-based access control that has flexible cost controls and a governance rules engine. Aggregated cloud cost and usage reporting - coupled with application-specific cost drill-downs - give IT decision makers and funders the information they need to improve their operational expenditures.

VMblog:  What are you guys looking forward to most at VMworld this year?

CliQr:  Like any successful startup, our technology is a little ahead of many enterprise IT organizations. But in the last year we've seen a marked uptick in the maturity of the industry around hybrid cloud or multi-environment management. All of a sudden, light bulbs are going on, and IT teams who want to offer a portfolio of cloud services to the business are experiencing first-hand some of the complexity involved with managing different environments with different teams and tools.  We are exited to see if the light bulb moments we get with customers are typical for the majority of VMworld attendees.

VMblog:  What do you think we need to do collectively as an ecosystem to strengthen the industry?

CliQr:  The need for speed and agility are driving change in the industry. We are all working to figure out how to meet business need for velocity while also maintaining security and compliance control, as well as service quality for systems of record. As an industry we need to figure out how to do both well. CliQr has a great solution that can help businesses move fast and stay in control because we offer fast time-to-value for application deployment and integration projects.

VMblog:  Can you offer up any CliQr resources to VMware customers who might be unable to attend VMworld this year?

CliQr:  We have a short YouTube video that highlights our capabilities for extending vCenter for application stack deployment and for multiple environments.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCSCq0Ovgb0

And if you want to schedule a demo tailored to your needs - we are happy to help.

http://info.cliqr.com/request-a-demo

VMblog:  If an attendee likes what they see and hear at your booth... what message about your product can you send them back with to sell their boss on your technology?

CliQr:  Adding on-demand application stack deployment to vCenter environment doesn't require a major private cloud deployment for IT-as-a-Service, or DevOps, or even batch or cluster jobs.  And deploying the same application profile to vCenter, vCloud, AWS, Azure and other clouds can all be managed from a single platform. CliQr's SaaS solution makes it easy to try a proof-of-concept project. With CliQr, dedicated deployment isn't a major professional services engagement.  If you are looking for a simple, IT-as-a-Service solution or dealing with the complexities of multiple applications, multiple user groups and multiple clouds, visit Booth #801 to see CliQr in action.

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Thanks again to CliQr for speaking with VMblog about the upcoming VMworld show.  Don't miss out on visiting with these guys if you're attending VMworld.  See their technology first hand by visiting with them at booth #801.