State of the Union, End User Computing 2023.

We had a great Liquidware Unplugged with Gabe Knuth (Senior Analyst, ESG), Scott Manchester (Director of Product Management Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365), James O’Regan, and myself last month and this blog post highlights some of the key elements we discussed.

The format of our Unplugged sessions always starts with informal banter between the panelists prior to attendees joining. ChatGPT was discussed with, ironically, Scott informing everyone of an ‘argument’ he had with the AI solution about whether or not a certain Microsoft product was, indeed, a Microsoft product! Scott shared that he holds 25 patents and Gabe described himself as an EUC “lifer”, having been involved in the market since 1998.

There was a lot of discussion surrounding the impact Covid-19 had on Work from Anywhere solutions and how EUC, in particular virtual desktop solutions, were up for the challenge when the world needed it. Gabe also reflected on the fact that for ten plus years there have been rumors of Citrix being acquired that finally came to fruition in 2021. He also noted that with VMware being spun out of Dell in 2021 and then the announcement that it is to be acquired by Broadcom. The panel noted that there is no mention of “EUC” by Broadcom in the resulting impending acquisition.

This acquisition of VMware is resulting in Microsoft AVD, Windows 365 and Cloud PC becoming a ‘first-party’ solution that others run on. The panel suggested that Microsoft is now being in the driver’s seat, both behind the scenes as well as in front, working with third-party vendors like Liquidware (as well as others) to deliver best-of-breed solutions on top of Microsoft.

Scott and the panel took time to discuss Windows 365 and AVD options and which solution seems to be resonating with certain use cases, small to medium sized accounts, and enterprise customers. Scott further shared a sneak preview of some of his presentation that will be delivered at IGEL Disrupt and NerdioCon.

The ‘click, click, boom’ principle of ease of use for admins in deploying both virtual desktops and applications should be the same as management of physical desktops. A slide was shared technological advancements; from the disruptive, to evolution, revolution. If you missed it you can watch the recording now.