VMware Professional Services organization recently announced partnerships with Lakeside Software and Liquidware Labs. Tools from these vendors will supposedly be used for VDI capacity planning. If this is really the case, then what is the role of VMware Capacity Planner in desktop virtualization planning? Is VMware conceding that VMware Capacity Planner is suitable for server virtualization planning only?

One of the most common concerns customers have is whether agents will be installed on target systems. Some customers, particularly ones in defense, healthcare and financial services sectors, will not allow agent-based data collection to be performed. Lanamark is the only ISV that provides desktop optimization and virtualization planning software that is agent-less, ensuring privacy, security and compliance of desktop infrastructure.

Then of course there is Liquidware Labs, which wants everyone to believe that its software does not use agents, when in reality it does. If you are a customer, don't let anyone convince you to install intrusive agents on your endpoints. Doing so can not only jeopardize user experience, performance and compliance of all monitored systems, but also expose these systems to data theft, malware and other security risks. You are much better off working with a Lanamark partner using Lanamark Suite.

Liquidware Labs just added another product to its lineup called "Liquidware Labs Jumpstart." Since there is no mention of partner involvement, it's likely that Liquidware Labs is now offering services directly to customers and competing with its services partners.

And of course Liquidware Labs claims "agent-free design - no software to install, zero resources used" when in reality it continues to use agents. In a recent video, Tyler Rohrer decided to call the Stratusphere agent "virtual agent" rather than completely misleading the audience.

Update (June 25, 2010)

After this blog post went live, Liquidware Labs promptly added "The offering provides for optional integration services from our partner community to help guide your overall project to success." to the desciption of Liquidware Labs Jumpstart. What's interesting is the "optional integration services" statement for an offering Liquidware Labs describes as "Software + Integration Services." The question still stands - does Liquidware Labs deliver services and compete or does it always engage services partners?

Today, Liquidware Labs announced a new version of Stratusphere, claiming "Liquidware Labs Stratusphere v4.6 Sheds Desktop Agent..." and "new agent-less design." Then in the middle of the middle paragraph of its press release, Liquidware Labs says:

"To get started with an assessment, the administrator simply applies the Stratusphere module to selected user(s) through a straight-forward Microsoft Group Policy Setting. Stratusphere then runs silently on the chosen desktops, quietly gathering usage data and performance metrics..." David Bieneman underscores the "new agent-less desktop design..." towards the end of the press release.

In contrast, Alessandro accurately explained in his blog that Liquidware Labs Stratusphere "monitors users by attaching a stealth agent to their Microsoft Active Directory account through Group Policy."

Despite the agent being tied to users through Group Policy, it doesn't change the fact that a module "runs silently on chosen desktops." Obviously Liquidware Labs improved its agent deployment capability, but it is misleading to suggest that Stratusphere is using an agent-less approach.

When David and Tyler launched Liquidware Labs a year ago, we assumed that the lack of ethics only applies to competitors since our legal counsel had to send a letter to David Bieneman and request that "Lanamark Copyrighted Material be removed and destroyed on or before May 31, 2009" after Liquidware Labs decided to copy portions of the Lanamark website (Liquidware Labs promptly complied). In our opinion the high ethical standards seem to apply to Liquidware Labs customers and partners as well.

In April 2009 Tyler Rohrer reached out to Lanamark from VMware with an interest in exploring a "partnership." For those of you who do not know Tyler, he used to work as the Director of Business Development at Foedus which was acquired by VMware in January 2008. Shortly after reaching out to Lanamark, Tyler became the Founder and COO at Liquidware Labs Inc. With a little more research, here is the picture that is emerging:

1. Liquidware Labs was founded by Tyler Rohrer and David Bieneman, former CEO of Vizioncore which was acquired by Quest Software also in January 2008. This is evident from the SEC filing by Liquidware Labs where both Tyler and David are listed as "Related Persons."
2. Tyler Rohrer openly mentions in his LinkedIn profile that “First order of business was purchasing vmSight” and underscores this further in his short biography on www.brianmadden.com.
3. Jonathan Alexander, currently listed as CEO of vmSight is also linked to Liquidware Labs. This is evident from Jonathan’s VMworld registration on April 9, 2009 which lists his company as vmSight / Liquidware Labs Inc.
4. The SEC filing by Liquidware Labs indicates that the company just raised $526,316, most likely to acquire the assets of vmSight.
5. Registered address in the SEC filing is the same as the address of vmSight headquarters.

It would come as no surprise if Liquidware Labs starts offering a desktop virtualization solution to service providers (Project Apache) that will compete with Lanamark and our flagship Lanamark Suite offering with integrated Desktop Analysis Pack designed to help solution providers accelerate delivery of desktop virtualization services to enterprises.