Akerberg’s successful track record of developing channel businesses in the virtualization market led to his inclusion in elite list
CHICAGO, IL – February 20, 2012 – Liquidware Labs, the leader in desktop transformation solutions, today announced that company President and COO Chris Akerberg has been named one of CRN's 2012 Channel Chiefs. This prestigious list of the most influential and powerful leaders in the IT channel recognizes those executives who are directly responsible for driving channel sales and growth within their organizations while also evangelizing and defending the importance of the channel throughout the entire IT Industry.
For the tenth consecutive year, Channel Chiefs were selected by the CRN editorial team based on channel experience, program innovations, channel-driven revenue, and public support for the importance of IT channel sales. Akerberg was chosen for his track record of building profitable channel distribution networks in emerging virtualization technologies.
Akerberg joined Liquidware Labs as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing in July 2011 and was promoted to his current position of President and COO in January 2012. He came to Liquidware Labs from his role as VP of Global Sales for Applications Monitoring and Server Virtualization solutions at Quest Software, which he joined with the acquisition of Vizioncore. At Vizioncore, Akerberg had built out a powerful two-tier channel distribution network focused on virtualization backup, replication and monitoring technologies, and he drove the company from a start-up in 2005 to the market leader in the space before supporting the integration of the business into Quest Software in 2010.
As President and COO of Liquidware Labs, Akerberg has focused on partner enablement for the burgeoning desktop virtualization market, which is predicted to top $5 billion by 2016. VARs that wish to capitalize on this market must develop high levels of proficiency in virtual desktop concepts, reference architectures, and software offerings to competently meet customer needs.
Under Akerberg's direction, the Liquidware Labs channel program has been tailored to aggressively drive new business opportunities for VARs that are proficient with the company's software. With more VARs signing to the program monthly, Liquidware Labs 2011 revenues have more than tripled over the previous year.
"I am very honored to be recognized as a CRN Channel Chief," said Akerberg. "I am also very happy to be able to spread the word to the greater partner community about the value of the Liquidware Labs methodology and solutions suite. We offer partners an unprecedented opportunity to develop desktop virtualization expertise so they can expand their portfolios of software and services. As this market accelerates, there is no doubt customers will demand this expertise of their VARs."
Kelley Damore, VP, Editorial Director, UBM Channel, added, "The 2012 Channel Chiefs list recognizes vendor executives dedicated to driving channel programs in the IT marketplace. Our annual Channel Chiefs issue is a must-read for IT solution providers evaluating new vendors or looking to expand solution offerings. These are the people, the products and the programs that any savvy solution provider needs to know. We congratulate this year's Channel Chiefs for their stellar record of business innovation and applaud them for their continued dedication to the partner community."
Liquidware Labs value to partners can be encapsulated in several key areas. First, with the company's desktop transformation methodology and integrated solutions suite, partners can speed the adoption and acceptance of desktop virtualization.
To do this, partners can leverage the Liquidware Labs AutoPilot™ License Kit, which formalizes a structured license-use approach of assess, design, migrate and validate. The kit allows partners to fast-track a proof-of-concept (POC) by identifying a group of appropriate virtual desktop candidates at a customer site; designing the correct image strategy and infrastructure for their needs; migrating users to the prototyped platform; and validating that the VDI structure meets or exceeds the physical desktop performance.
The kit includes 500 Stratusphere FIT licenses, 100 ProfileUnity licenses, and 100 Stratusphere UX licenses. Because customers can obtain all requisite offerings from one shop, partners can close POCs/pilots faster, engage with more customers, and increase customer satisfaction.
A second key area, and the fastest growing focus for Liquidware Labs, is the user-virtualization market with award-winning ProfileUnity&tt . ProfileUnity allows partners to provide clients with an affordable, easy-to-use solution that decouples user settings and data from the OS image to leverage a shared-image strategy that reduces storage costs in virtual desktop implementations. ProfileUnity also supports desktop disaster recovery and simplifies Windows 7 migrations as well as overall desktop management.
Finally, Liquidware Labs solutions help validate true and comprehensive user experiences. With Stratusphere UX, partners meet the critical requirement of validating to their customers that the virtual desktop implementations supports quality user experience and performance standards on par with or better than physical desktops-both at the end of pilots and later in production environments.
Selected by CRN's editorial staff, the 2012 Channel Chiefs list is featured in the February issue of CRN Magazine and will be featured online at www.crn.com.
About Liquidware Labs
Liquidware Labs™ is the leader in desktop transformation solutions for next-generation physical and virtual desktops, including VMware® View, Citrix® XenDesktop, Red Hat® and Microsoft® Windows 7. The company's Stratusphere™ and ProfileUnity™ solutions have been described by analysts as the industry's first 'On-Ramp to VDI,' providing a complete methodology and software that enables organizations to decouple users and applications from the operating system and to cost-effectively assess, design, migrate and validate the user experience for next-generation desktop infrastructure. Liquidware Labs products are VMware and Citrix certified, and are available through a global network of partners. Visit www.liquidwarelabs.com for further information.
About UBM Channel: (www.ubmchannel.com)
UBM Channel is the premier provider of IT channel-focused events, media, research, consulting, and sales and marketing services. With over 30 years of experience and engagement, UBM Channel has the unmatched channel expertise to execute integrated solutions for technology executives managing partner recruitment, enablement and go-to-market strategy in order to accelerate technology sales. UBM Channel is a UBM company. To learn more about UBM Channel, visit us at www.ubmchannel.com.
UBM plc (www.ubm.com)
UBM plc is a leading global business media company. We inform markets and bring the world's buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print and provide them with the information they need to do business successfully. We focus on serving professional commercial communities, from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists around the world. Our 6,000 staff in more than 30 countries is organized into specialist teams that serve these communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. For more information, go to www.ubm.com
