Liquidware has a number of great products in the EUC space, including Stratusphere UX and ProfileUnity. VMblog even has a great video discussion worth checking out with Kevin Cooke talking about a new feature in Stratusphere UX called SpotCheck. But one of the more interesting and newer products that may not get as much coverage is a layering technology from Liquidware called FlexApp.

FlexApp layering instantly delivers applications to any Windows desktop environment on demand. Applications are delivered to users independent of the Windows operating system version or delivery platform. The solution supports VDI and DaaS desktops such as Microsoft WVD, Citrix, VMware Horizon, Nutanix Xi Frame, Amazon WorkSpaces and physical desktops. It offers innovative and industry-first features such as Click-to-Layer (apps on demand), FlexApp Cache, and seamless support of cloud object-based storage, which makes FlexApp a logical "go-to" application layering choice for many organizations.

Earlier this week, Liquidware hosted a special EUC Inside Track webinar for some of the talking heads that cover the EUC market. One of the technologies they discussed was FlexApp.

Liquidware said they are making FlexApp directly integrated into Amazon AppStream. AppStream, as you know, has the same problem as every other EUC platform out there around image management, image sprawl, pool sprawl - with users desperately trying to get things down to one image, and getting all of the applications to come in dynamically.

AppStream has a new feature called "Dynamic Apps" that allows 3rd party tools to integrate with the platform. And this is where Liquidware comes into play. Instead of installing applications directly into an image, users can integrate FlexApp application layers into an AppStream image. When applications are installed this way, things are redirected to a virtual disk (VHD).

Liquidware has taken their FlexApp engine to Amazon, and they are delivering dynamic apps and publishing them right to the Web interface of AppStream. So when a user logs into their AppStream environment, all application types will be displayed: standard AppStream applications as well as any FlexApp application layers they might have.

Ahead of Citrix Synergy, Liquidware talked about a few sneak peek items being planned for FlexApp 6.8.5, which itself is expected sometime around the third quarter of 2019. They include features such as:

• FlexApp Cloaking - FlexApps at boot can be cloaked by ProfileUnity Context Aware filters
• Pre-cache FlexApp Blocks - records required blocks for app start and speeds app launch experience
• FlexApp Merge Layers - two pre-existing layers can be merged into one
• Trigger Support - layer FlexApps by in-session critera that may have changed. Works with filters as well.
• Amazon AppStream - New Feature Module - Natively installed app assignments - controls AppStream Shortcuts based on ProfileUnity filters
• FlexApp Packaging Console Updates:
• Ease of deployment - .NET and C++ runtimes are self-installing/self-managed
• OS optimizations are done automatically
• Self rollback of OS packaging state after each package - no VM snapshot required