The world of EUC is always in a state of flux, but everyone is now experiencing a shift from relative predictability to a major transition where application, device, and workplace integration are uncertain. VMblog spoke with Pre-Sales Consultant Donny van der Linde about this shift and how Liquit is addressing it for its customers using a recent case study.
VMblog: There are organizations out there transitioning away from Citrix and VMware. What’s the reason and how does Liquit deal with this in the current EUC market?
Donny van der Linde: Citrix and VMware are forcing their customers, MSPs, and other users of their VDI solutions to shift to cloud DaaS with higher licensing costs, short migration windows, and loss of control. We’ve been providing a future-proof solution to those clients for some time, and the Berkelland Municipality in the Netherlands is just one example. It’s one of many projects, including many mid-sized and global enterprises, that reflect everyone’s challenges, processes, and desired outcomes for achieving the modern workspace. Many are shifting from VMware, Citrix and Ivanti to solutions like AVD (Azure Virtual Desktop) with the help of the Liquit platform.
VMblog: What were Berkelland’s challenges and how do they reflect those of other Citrix and VMware users in shifting to a modern workspace?
Donny van der Linde: The Netherlands Municipality has 400 employees providing diverse services to 44,000 citizens. Like most organizations, they needed to transition employees to a remote desktop/laptop hybrid work/cloud environment with Microsoft 365 and Intune for UEM (Unified Endpoint Management).
The fundamental challenge was an existing Citrix environment using thin clients and a complex, outdated, and costly Citrix XenApp server architecture. They had a mix of SaaS and complex legacy applications and needed a migration process that didn’t interrupt workflows. They also understood gaps would need to be filled for seamless, cost efficient, and flexible application management and access across devices.
VMblog: How does that scenario of challenges mimic that of the broader EUC today
Donny van der Linde: Microsoft is redefining the EUC space with robust offerings like Microsoft 365, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), and Intune. This expansion diminishes the reliance on traditional Citrix or VMware VDI solutions by providing a comprehensive suite for workspace management. The challenge is that these solutions still have some gaps in terms of OS compatibility, packaging simplicity and some broader complexity challenges across diverse devices and applications.
VMblog: What are the biggest challenges that everyone faces in getting to the modern workspace and what’s the best way to meet everyone’s diverse EUC environment needs?
Donny van der Linde: Traditional workspace management solutions can’t meet evolving EUC demands, which can lead to increased complexity, costs, and security risks. They need a future-proof solution approach enabling existing system and platform integration with new EUC workspace, application, and UEM technologies.
Liquit bridges the gaps in existing solutions to meet diverse IT EUC architecture needs across multiple solutions in an agile, flexible, scalable, and future-proof way. With Berkelland, this meant enabling seamless application access, unified management of legacy on-premises VDI/ cloud DaaS, and integration with Microsoft’s offerings. Liquit also addressed key challenges, like reducing packaging time and meeting all OS and device options, along with an application repository of thousands of applications.
VMblog: What were the outcomes for Berkelland and how does that translate to the ongoing challenges of the broader EUC and Future shifts?
Donny van der Linde: These transitions must be transparent for end users and easy for IT teams on their timetable while dramatically reducing licensing and management costs. With Berkelland, Liquit reduced TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) by enabling elimination of the Citrix XenApp server farm hardware and software while reducing licensing and management cost by over 30%.
This led to increased user satisfaction via one-click application access with transparent contextual user settings that are easily implemented and changed for each user. IT reduced their management and time issues with automatic application packaging, deployment, updating, and patching, which simplifies laptop device and application management.
This transition happened in several months, but organizations can do it a lot faster or more gradually if they choose through Liquit’s ability to connect on-premises and cloud resources. Berkelland’s future agility plans include integrating Liquit Workspace into their SharePoint site for enhanced application accessibility. Now that Liquit is part of Recast Software, Berkelland is curious if there will be new features or functionality to come within the Liquit platform. What could be interesting for them.
VMblog: How does this transition reflect broader trends in end-user computing (EUC)?
Donny van der Linde: Berkelland Municipality’s reduced there Citrix XenApp Servers and has 95% of their applicaties running from Citrix within Liquit now. Result a hybrid work/cloud environment with Microsoft 365, Intune, Liquit and a Citrix environment for a small set of legacy apps. . The new EUC reality is based on collaborative integration among vendors like Microsoft, Liquit as a part of Recast Software, Nerdio, Parallels, Dizzion, and several others. Liquit’s role is to facilitate a seamless transition to modern workspaces by providing a true end-to-end application management platform that addresses diverse IT environment management challenges.
The goal is to give organizations the control they need to choose the best solutions for their environment and ensure they all work seamlessly. That means enabling unified, agile, and cost-effective management of applications and devices in a way that can adjust to the future EUC shifts that are just around the corner.
To learn more about controlling your transition, go to www.liquit.com/transition
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