Liquidware Labs Getting Cozy with VMware

Industry observers may consider the desktop virtualization market wide open, but profile management vendor Liquidware Labs is betting heavily on its relationship with VMware. The latest release of its user management product, ProfileUnity 4.7, comes with new purpose-built features for VMware's ThinApp. Two other significant developments for the two-year-old company are its recent partnership with desktops-as-a-service pioneer Desktone, and a licensing deal with Quest Software. The company claims 500% year-over-year growth in 2010 and profitability, but it started from a low base.

The integration of Liquidware's ProfileUnity with ThinApp is a logical follow-on to bundling the user profile management software with VMware View 4.5 earlier in 2010. Both Liquidware and the VMware Consulting Services group, which is officially supporting the product, hope and expect customers will see it as a way to approach upcoming Windows 7 migrations. The deal also plugs a significant hole in VMware's virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) story – one that the company first attempted to plug through its purchase of RTO Solutions in February 2010.

Lexcom's Virtualization Practice can provide a demo of Liquidware ProfileUnity.