Kathy Gibson reports from VMworld 2016 in Barcelona – Digitalisation is not only about transforming IT and customer-facing systems: it is having a marked effect on the end user workspace as well.
Connectivity and mobility is fundamentally changing the way people live and work, says Sanjay Poonen, GM: end user computer and head of global marketing at VMware.
He points out that VMware’s value proposition extends beyond the cloud and the enterprise, but also enables any app to run on any device.
Today, apps typically run on Windows or client/server devices, some on the Web and some on mobile devices.
VMware aims to be the Switzerland that brings all of these together, says Poonen. “The core goal is to bring choice and control together. Users want ease and simplicity; IT wants management and security.”
Significantly, the whole end user computing ecosystem is now standardised, with VMware the standard for management, security and virtual desktop interface (VDI)
However, the final step in the journey, says Poonen, lies in creating unified endpoint management, bringing management and security together in one tool.
“We think we can reduce the cost of managing endpoints by 15% to 30%,” he says.
VMware Workspace ONE Essentials adds to the company’s digital workspace portfolio, providing a secure standalone digital workspace solution for unified access to business data and applications.
The new product will help companies to standardise on digital workspaces across all end user types and use cases. It also includes enhanced security with new data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities for Office 365 as well as improved end user experiences with expanded mobile single sign-on (SSO) to all enterprise Web applications.
Collaboration with Microsoft adds optimised delivery of Skype for Business in VMware Horizon, using peer-to-peer endpoint virtual channels and offloading media processing to the endpoints.
Workspace ONE Essentials is designed to support a mobile workforce using unmanaged devices. The solution includes user authentication and an application catalogue so IT administrators can have control and visibility into the access of business applications for enterprise security.
End users benefit from consumer simplicity with unified access to all approved business resources needed for productivity, application self-service, and SSO using any device or platform.
Workspace ONE Essentials provides new options for companies that have implemented a bring-your-own (BYO) initiative and enables unmanaged devices to access business applications and services through an identity-defined workspace.
The Workspace ONE policy engine allows the use of personal file sharing applications for personal files and containerises work applications such as Office 365. This solution enables organisations to not only deploy Office 365 securely but to integrate it with other applications and services approved for corporate use while keeping files and data within the corporate container on the device.
Collaboration with F5 Networks will enable SSO to all existing enterprise web applications including ones that do not support security assertion markup language (SAML). This is delivered through the integration of Workspace ONE and the F5 Networks BIG-IP platform.
Workspace customers
About 66 000 customers currently use VMware’s end user computing products.
Lufthansa Cargo, runs VMware Workspace ONE with AirWatch to drive compliance enforcement, mobile device management and application management.
The company is also supporting a move to Apple iPads for a modern electronic flight bag (EFB) approach to eliminate in-cockpit electronics. This greatly reduced cockpit weight, shortened approval cycles for new technologies, and increased fuel efficiency. It also enabled Lufthansa to quickly provide new updates, applications and approaches to employees.
Meanwhile Swedish real estate company Akademiska Hus wanted to create a mobile environment to enable employees to work from anywhere and a solution that would be a cost-effective and sustainable investment into the future.
After realizing a return on investment from a deployment of VMware Horizon, Akademiska Hus decided to further its mobility efforts through the use of the entire VMware Workspace ONE platform and adopt a digital workspace that includes integrated device management, application delivery and identity management.
As a result, the company benefited from greater availability of information for employees, longer lifespans for hardware, reduction of helpdesk tickets by 60%, and an improved end-user experience compared to the past, with faster delivery and consumption of services.
Sally Beauty Holdings is the world’s largest distributor of professional beauty supplies, with over 4 000 stores worldwide. The company selected VMware Horizon to extend business resources to employees for secure, anytime, anywhere access to enable greater agility and productivity using any device.
Sally Beauty is evolving from a traditional brick-and-mortar company to becoming increasingly digital as employees and customers increasingly embrace mobile-cloud technologies.
Partnership with Microsoft
VMware and Microsoft have announced they are collaborating to enhance the Microsoft Skype for Business experience in Horizon virtual desktops and published applications.
The solution creates a direct peer-to-peer endpoint virtual channel and offloads media processing to the endpoints, resulting in an improved end-user experience while reducing the strain on data centre infrastructure.
The use of Skype for Business in a virtual desktop offers secure collaboration to keep corporate data secure in the data centre and prevent data leakage. It also offers simple management with greater visibility, policy management and control through centralised deployment and application updates. Lastly, it delivers a consistent end-user experience across any device and platform along with lower IT infrastructure costs.