Infinite Ops Releases Workspace-as-a-Service Platform

Infinite Ops, a startup based just outside Seattle, plunged into the hot Workspace-as-a-Service market Monday with the release of a platform through which partners can rapidly deploy diverse services across public cloud providers.

The Infinite Ops Console enables services providers to deliver to their clients fully hosted desktops, virtualized apps, plugins and cloud resources, all in under an hour, said Michael Fraser, the company's CEO.

With its first offering, Infinite Ops enters an increasingly crowded and competitive market for WaaS -- a solution gaining traction by expanding upon hosted desktops, or VDI, that simply deliver remote Windows environments.

[Related: WaaS Fact, WaaS Fiction: nGenx Debunks Common Myths About Cloud Workspaces]

The Infinite Ops Console acts as an interface layer for accessing cloud providers, workspace templates, an app store and other features. Partners can use the console to deploy the operating system, networks, session host, Web access and connection brokering, Fraser said.

"The whole goal is that the service provider or internal IT of that organization has to have no engineering experience whatsoever," Fraser told CRN.

The product has garnered interest from major cloud providers, Fraser told CRN. He's had discussions with Microsoft about how to empower service providers to help their customers consume more Azure resources.

"Any type of vendor that wants to can come to us and we can deploy their solution," he said. "We truly are a full cloud management platform that can manage anything and everything when it comes to cloud."

The console's functions are fully accessible by API, and partners can build out custom templates accessible only to specific users. It offers Teradici integration for delivering virtual desktops through PCoIP, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services for Windows Server, and integration with VMware, Windows 7 and Windows 10.

"We're building out a bunch of analytics as well, which for us is paramount to our long-term strategy to make sure we can have a lot of business intelligence for these partners," Fraser told CRN. That includes reporting as to which users are logging in, where they're doing it, and how long they maintain sessions.

A cost calculator is also included in the first release.

The Infinite Ops Console can deploy virtualized workspaces to Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and Google Compute Engine. Plans are in the works to add IBM SoftLayer and Rackspace as hosting providers.

Artisan Infrastructure, a boutique data center operator in Austin, Texas, has been using the platform in a beta trial.

Chris Wiser, Artisan's channel chief for managed service providers, told CRN thatthe console is "cutting edge and unique, providing multiple layers and the ability to deploy on multiple platforms, including Artisan’s infrastructure."

The Infinite Ops platform delivers a sleek look, easy-to-use interfaces, expansive control and the flexibility to deploy cloud workspaces to multiple providers.

"It gives us the ability to offer a turnkey product to our MSP clients, and we only sell to service providers. We can plug and play into our architecture without almost any effort on our side," Wiser told CRN.

And "the ability to have our partners plug and play is really powerful. It gives them something they can truly build on," he added.

Wiser sees the WaaS market expanding rapidly as cloud workspaces start integrating more diverse services.

He doesn't expect it to be long before VoIP seats will be plugged into workspace deployments, he said, allowing service providers to offer all essential business tools managed from a single console to remote employees.