Microsoft acquires FSLogix to enhance the Office 365 desktop experience

Microsoft has acquired FSLogix, a startup that works in desktop virtualization capabilities, for an undisclosed amount. This is Microsoft’s second acquisition in two weeks and 16th for the year 2018. In a blog post announcement, Microsoft said the acquisition of FSLogix will “help extend our virtualization capabilities and provide an even richer experience for Microsoft 365 customers.”

FSLogix also said on its home page that the company is now part of Microsoft. Founded in 2013 by Jeremy Hurren, Kevin Goodman, and Randy Cook, the Atlanta, Georgia-based FSLogix offers Dynamic Application Visibility, which enables policy-based control of an app’s visibility. The startup is one of the leading innovator of solutions that reduce the amount of hardware, time and labor required to support desktop virtualization platforms. With implementations ranging from less than 1,000 to over 50,000 users, FSLogix Apps enhances user experience and productivity, while reducing support requirements for IT departments. FSLogix is a Microsoft partner, Amazon Workspaces partner, VMware partner, Citrix Ready partner, Red Hat partner, two time Best of Synergy winner, CUGC Alumni, and a first-year sponsor of the CUGC Women in Technology Mentoring program. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, GA, with offices in Salt Lake City, Denver, Boston, the Netherlands, and London, England.

Commenting on the acquisition, Brad Anderson, CVP, Microsoft 365 and Julia White, CVP, Microsoft Azure said: “The way Microsoft 365 enables customers to shift to a modern desktop experience puts it at the heart of workplace transformation. A modern desktop with Windows 10 and Office 365 not only offers the most productive and most secure computing experience, it also saves IT time and money, and allows for a focus on driving business results. For many companies, their specific needs require a modern desktop be virtualized.”

Microsoft hopes the acquisition would benefits its customers in a number of ways. For example, Microsoft Office applications are some of the most highly used and most commonly virtualized applications in any business. With FSLogix enabling faster load times for user profiles in Outlook and OneDrive, Office 365 ProPlus will become even more performant in multi-user virtual environments (including Windows Virtual Desktop).

In a separate blog post, Randy Cook, FSLogix CTO said: “When we launched FSLogix in 2012, our goal was to build software that helped customers reduce the amount of resources, time, and labor required to support virtual desktops. Our first two products, FSLogix Apps and FSLogix Profile Container, focused on addressing critical needs that have existed from the dawn of desktop virtualization. Our most recent product, Office 365 Container, is designed to enhance the Microsoft Office 365 experience in those virtual desktop environments. Together, the FSLogix suite of tools has become a fundamental piece of our customers’ desktop environments (physical or virtual), allowing admins to manage each desktop (and their users’ data) the same way–all while delivering near-native or better performance.”

FSLogix Team