There were many years after VMware launched VDI in 2008 that people would proclaim “It’s the year of VDI!”  Meaning of course that virtual desktops would finally overtake physical desktop workloads. This year, we at Liquidware, are proclaiming “Its the year of INDEPENDENT VDI!” An idea which, quite frankly, is overdue.

In the history of VDI, the most meaningful insights and developments did not come from the platform vendors but from the ecosystem of users and partners around the platforms. Today, Liquidware is proud to announce that we are the Founding Partner of the World of End User Computing (WEUC) community. The WEUC is a community of seasoned veterans of the EUC ecosystem who are looking to provide end users with opportunities for networking and sharing knowledge without the restraints of vendor bias.

It’s Time for Free-Flowing Independent Unbiased EUC Dialog

We agree with the founders of WEUC that the time has come. Check out the WEUC board – you will see some very familiar and popular faces there, who have contributed to the EUC knowledge base for decades.

The WEUC is managed by Engage Strategies. For those of you who are not familiar with Engage, they are the organization that breathed new life into the CUGC starting in 2015. Liquidware was among the first to sign up with them at that time, and we have a strong respect for their professionalism and dedication to the success of the WEUC.

Why is Liquidware Sponsoring the WEUC?

So, what makes the WEUC a great idea now and why is Liquidware on board?

The best answer for that question requires me to trace the history of Liquidware, which closely parallels key developments in EUC for over the past 15 years. Below is a picture which is worth 10,000 words and will shorten this blog post.

Liquidware was born in 2009, and we have seen it all in the EUC ecosystem. When VDI launched, the vision was that virtual machines would just replace physical machines. You could much more easily provision and set up a virtual machine. These VMs would be “persistent” or “stateful” desktops. And guess what? All the stuff that users typically would cram into a physical desktop, they could now cram into a virtual machine. Which led to the same problems that physical desktops posed – only worse.

Keeping Pace with all the EUC Developments Over the Past 15 Years

The second iteration was “non-persistent” or “stateless” desktops. These were pools of virtual machines that were one-size-fits-all clones. The advantage was that you could wipe out all the user touches at logoff. Then you could provision brand new “clean” machines. This had benefits for security and management, but users lost all their ability to personalize their workspaces. There was an outcry!!

So, in the early stages of EUC, we at Liquidware figured out two things.   The first was that it would be very easy to lose visibility into all the workloads on VDI because you would lose the mapping of one device/one desktop/one user.  VDI workspaces shared a common infrastructure. So, you couldn’t troubleshoot effectively, and you could forget about optimization.  We launched Stratusphere UX which provided detailed historical desktop data which constructed a user experience score that would indicate how your desktops were performing. You could also use this data forensically to figure out the source of your issues.

On the heels of Stratusphere UX, we launched ProfileUnity to allow you to virtualize user profiles and add them back to a non-persistent VM. This solution provided and maintained a universal user profile that saved all the customizations users needed. ProfileUnity profiles transcended OS versions and platforms.

In 2013 we launched a new solution called FlexApp that essentially did for applications, what ProfileUnity did for user profiles.  Packaged them, took them out of the master image and allowed you to provision them as needed on demand.

Most recently, we launched CommandCTRL, which is a real-time monitoring solution. With this solution, as soon as you can see the problem, you can fix it.

Every product that we launched was in keeping with new developments in the industry and new concepts that were springing up. Just as important, we kept up with significant vendors, including Dizzion, Amazon and Microsoft, who joined VMware and Citrix in the EUC space.

For the past 15 years, Liquidware stayed platform-agnostic while we watched these developments and enhanced our offerings to fill in the gaps left by these providers. And the big ever-repeated lesson we learned was that none of the leading providers had the 100% solution stack for all users. Most organizations ended up running hybrid environments combining vendors’ technologies to get the best result for their users and the applications they were running.

Do Yourself the Biggest Favor Today — Join the WEUC

So, the question you must ask yourself is:  Am I going to get this perspective about best-of-breed hybrid architecture from any of the leading EUC vendors? Better yet, ask me and I will tell you: No, you’re not.

Which is why the time is right for the WEUC. Finally, we have a forum where you can mingle and converse with others who are living in the same world you are and have the same challenges. The WEUC is the place to get the latest insights and the unbiased, best practices knowledge and all the shortcuts that get you to the right place.

As usual, we have seen the future of EUC and the WEUC is it. Please do yourself a favor and check them out today.