We Told You It’s Always Been About the User (and the Applications)!

Without a lot of fanfare, pomp or circumstance, Microsoft made a recent change to its Windows licensing model. Truth be told, it was a significant change. I won’t rehash all the details, as you can read it direct from Microsoft here. The new model is a great thing for VDI as it reinforces the software giant’s new-found support of mobile devices, BYOD and a device-agnostic world. Good for you, Microsoft!

In short, Microsoft has added a per-user licensing option for Windows. Software Assurance (SA) and Virtual Desktop Access (VDA) licensing remain, but the option to employ per-user or per-device licensing provides you with more flexibility to support change—and far less complication to ensure you remain in compliance.

Of course, we view this as a tipping point for one of the last stalwarts of old-school physical PC lock-in. Prior to Satya Nadella taking the reins at Microsoft most desktop entitlements were extremely Wintel-centric. Whether that meant application support for non-windows tablets or operating systems licensing, the inflexibility served as an impediment to next-generation adoption. The dam has broken, and we at Liquidware Labs could not be happier.

Looking to Make a Change in Strategy?

This change validates the need for something new; an approach or strategy change that will have profound implications for your organization. These changes will have considerable operational benefit, but will also change the way users experience technologies and make them more supportive of the way they want and need to work. Take a look at how Liquidware Labs can help you make a change in your strategy:

• Stratusphere FIT will help you to capture desktop and end-user computing information, including details on supporting hardware and software, performance, resource utilization, applications and networking that will enable you to take technology and business decisions based on user behavior.
• ProfileUnity makes users and applications more portable, with user environment management that unifies user profiles, policies, and data to speed Windows logons, streamline management, and enable seamless migrations. And with FlexApp, you gain advanced application layering features to empower users to install their own applications, or Administrators to assign department-level applications to users and groups.
• Flex-IO, our IOPS acceleration technology for non-persistent VDI including VMware Horizon View and Citrix XenDesktop environments, leverages VMware vSphere host RAM to significantly accelerate the user experience.
• Stratusphere UX is your comprehensive monitoring, performance validation and diagnostics solution for organizations that support physical, virtual and mixed-platform desktop environments.

This announcement from Microsoft will, undoubtedly, unlock the barriers for many organizations to move to a more flexible, dynamic next-generation user environment—one that Liquidware Labs will help you migrate to, manage the new and old environments cohesively, monitor and diagnose for ongoing user satisfaction. Because, as our mantra has always been—it’s all about the user!