As I attended and exhibited with Liquidware, we shared our support of Microsoft WVD with our adaptive workspace management suite known as Liquidware Essentials, but I'll focus my thoughts on what I saw regarding desktops.
If there was any doubt that Microsoft is serious about Azure being a driving force of Office 365 and where Desktops are headed, the buzz and news at Inspire left nothing to question. Microsoft Azure is now the central hub of all things innovative for Windows related apps and workspaces.
Microsoft WVD (Windows Virtual Desktop) was a leading force of news during the event. The turnkey desktop infrastructure, that promises to enable organizations to run Windows in Azure cloud in a frictionless manner, was proudly on display in Microsoft's area of the show floor. Many sessions were also dedicated to the platform and at least a dozen sessions seem to have had major focus on the platform. Partners were hungry to learn all they can about WVD and how they can help customers adopt the new platform. This buzz seemed to be a marked shift from the approach where partners and customers have previously only looked to Citrix or VMware for guidance on enterprise virtual desktop deployments. Now, Microsoft seems to be in the driver's seat with their forthcoming WVD offering. While Citrix and VMware will remain relevant to many enterprises, WVD no longer requires their involvement for enterprise desktops, therefore many partners seemed to look directly to Microsoft and vendors like Liquidware and others that are in the emerging ecosystem. Other partners that have not previously had a Citrix or VMware practice seemed to also be busy lining up offerings to assist customers that are looking to soon adopt WVD desktops.
As for Liquidware, we announced official support of ProfileUnity and FlexApp of the new Windows OS that is most associated with WVD, Windows 10 Multi-Session. We also announced our seamless compatibility for FSLogix profile containers and the ability to backup, restore, and seamlessly manage a user profile across multiple OS versions and FSLogix profile containers. We demonstrated the new functionality in this new video that was posted at the start of the show and you can see it here.
Liquidware's adaptive workspace management suite is purpose built to take organizations through a transformation to Windows Virtual Desktops. Stratusphere UX's monitoring and diagnostics is key in assessing users and desktops for WVD and helping to ensure a positive user experience once in production. ProfileUnity can instantly migrate users from legacy desktops, including Windows 7, straight to WVD on the new Windows 10 Multi-session OS. FlexApp delivers applications just in time and attaches them as layers, avoiding the headaches of tedious base image management in any Windows environment but it is especially impactful in a positive way for WVD.
Exhibiting at Inspire for the first time was a great experience. As a channel focused company, it's always great to have the time to talk about what are the top of mind thoughts that keeps the channel up at night. Liquidware is looking forward to turning many of those Inspire conversations into new partnerships and further coverage of our adaptive workspace management solutions in the new direction of Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop deployments.
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About the Author
Jason E. Smith is VP of Product Marketing for Liquidware and has worked in the virtual desktop and Windows management market for more than 20 years.
