“ProfileUnity v6.7.6 introduces the ability to natively host user profiles and user authored data (docs) on enterprise grade cloud storage such as Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, or Microsoft Azure Blob Storage. Enterprises can now seamlessly automate their user profiles from on-prem SMB storage to the cloud,” said Jason Mattox, CTO of Liquidware. “A key benefit is the ability to move user profiles to the cloud in advance of a full Desktop as a Service (DaaS) transition with the promise of a seamless cutover to DaaS when the enterprise is ready to make that move. Other benefits include zero user downtime, built-in disaster recovery, and secure authentication.”
ProfileUnity’s zero transition downtime breaks down a significant barrier to DaaS adoption for large-scale enterprises. Silently, and unattended in the background – ProfileUnity harvests the local settings, documents, and other personal attributes of user state from the current desktop, and writes that natively to the cloud(s). With no loss of user productivity, the modern organisation can liberate the IP and Goodwill land-locked on each users’ desktop moving high value resources to the cloud. Leveraging the intrinsic storage attributes of each cloud provider also has additional benefits, and Liquidware is prepared to assist with those recommendations as well.
“Desktop-as-a-Service has become an important enabling technology in the enterprise and engagement layers of the digital enterprise,” said Shannon Kalvar, IDC Research Manager for IT Service Management and Virtual Client Computing. “Tools that seamlessly provision and transition user information between on-premises and multiple cloud providers allow enterprises to leverage hybrid solutions to meet rapidly changing stakeholder needs.”
ProfileUnity v6.7.6 stores user-authored data to native cloud storage like Dropbox Business, OneDrive, Amazon WorkDocs, and Google Drive. The new release builds on ProfileUnity’s already well-rounded User Environment Management (UEM) capabilities that end the need for roaming profiles or basic profile tools. The solution supports automated migrations to Windows 10 and Server 2016. It speeds overall logon times and streamlines user management by providing unified User Profiles with Application Rights Management and Context-Aware Policies for granular control of users on any Windows OS, on any desktop delivery platform, including physical, virtual or cloud. ProfileDisk is a special feature in ProfileUnity that leverages a provisioned VHD or VMDK to handle extremely large profiles – including those with MS Outlook Index and Search, and Microsoft Office 365 Caching – to deliver lightning-fast profiles that are fully customisable.
“By using object-based storage to store user profiles and user-authored data in the cloud, ProfileUnity v6.7.6 removes the last stumbling block for companies trying to get off-prem and into the cloud (or a truly hybrid environment), where they can begin to unlock the potential of DaaS,” said Chris Noon, director at Nuvens, a Liquidware UK partner.