Kathy Gibson reports from VMworld 2020 – The world has completely changed, but the last few months have seen tremendous growth and impact for organisations around the world.
“Using Horizon and Workspace One, our VMware customers have been able to work and thrive during the past few months,” says Shankar Iyer, senior vice-president and GM: end user computing at VMware.
“We have learned a lot too: I have learned how to manage a remote workforce across the world; and we have learned that remote work can be productive as well,” he says.
VMware conducted a survey to gauge the longevity of the remote working model, he adds.
“Initially we thought maybe remote work would be temporary. But it is safe to say that the world of work has changed forever.
“Thirty-four percent of employees believe that the ability to work from home is no longer a perk but a prerequisite.
“We talk about cost savings and the ability to live where we want. But three-quarters of employees also say that workers outside of head office feel more empowered to make decisions with remote working,” Iyar says.
“We think these changes will be permanent, and 90% of employees believe it will be the repsonsibility of employers in future to support remote work.”
As companies across the board become remote organisations, they will have to rethink the concept of the distributed work, and how they manage the distributed workforce.
The top requirement is the technology experience that we provide employees, Iyar says. “So you need a digital workspace.”
IT professionals have been the heroes of their organisations as they have driven the change to remote work, he adds.
The key to success in remote working is driving and keeping employee engagement; IT modernisation; and delivering a zero-trust security model.
“But today many organisations are dealing with a number of siloed tools. And there is a gap between what those tools provide and what IT is trying to achieve.
“We have spent years innovating on a digital workspace platform that delivers device management, app and desktop virtualisation, and access services, with endpoint security.
“Intelligent orchestration on top of this delivers on the goals of employee engagement, IT modernisation and a zero-trust security model.”
“We believe we can truly modernise and build a stack that is simpler than it is today, that meets the goals of the CIO, CISO, line of business manager and the employee.”
VMware is today launching VMware Future Ready Workforce solutions to provide exceptional workforce experiences, end-to-end Zero Trust security controls, and simplified management.
The Future Ready Workforce solutions combine VMware Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), Digital Workspace and Endpoint Security capabilities to help IT manage and optimise more secure access to any app, on any cloud, from any device while providing a simple, high performant, and a safer user experience for the distributed workforce.
SASE: an architecture to unify networking and security in the cloud
Legacy networking and security approaches lack the automation, cloud scale and intrinsic security needed to connect and protect apps, data, and users across a globally distributed business fabric.
The VMware SASE Platform converges cloud networking, cloud security and zero trust network access with best in class web security to deliver flexibility, agility, and scalability for enterprises of all sizes.
It is a cloud-first offering that delivers application quality assurance, intrinsic security, and operational simplicity, and is ideal for organisations that are supporting a work from anywhere workforce.
* Industry-leading SD-WAN – VMware has been positioned as a leader in the Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure three consecutive years for its SD-WAN solution. The VMware SD-WAN global network has now been expanded to more than 2,700 cloud service nodes across 130 points of presence (POPs). The new VMware Edge Network Intelligence gives IT teams added visibility and telemetry into the end-user experience as applications are accessed from anywhere, and application traffic traverses many different networks. The Dell EMC SD-WAN Solution powered by VMware has also been expanded to include built-in LTE to support mobile clinics / temporary sites as well as higher reliability for work from home.
* Industry-Leading Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) – VMware Secure Access is a ZTNA service that combines VMware Workspace ONE and VMware SD-WAN into a single, cloud-hosted offering that enables more secure, optimized, and high-performance access for remote and mobile users. VMware has been positioned as a leader in the Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Unified Endpoint Management three consecutive years for its Workspace ONE solution
* Best-in-Class Cloud & Web Security – VMware is partnering with leading companies to provide customers flexibility and choice in meeting their cloud and web security requirements. The new VMware Cloud Web Security service will integrate Menlo Security’s best-in-class secure web gateway (SWG), cloud access service broker (CASB), Data Loss Prevention, sandbox, and remote browser isolation capabilities natively into the VMware SASE solution.
VMware and Zscaler have announced an expanded strategic relationship to enable enterprises to combine VMware SD-WAN and VMware Secure Access with Zscaler Internet Access into a best of breed SASE solution.
* Integrated Next-Gen Firewall as a Service – The VMware NSX Firewall is a stateful Layer 7 firewall that will be integrated into the VMware SASE Platform for cloud-delivered firewall as a service in both single-tenanted and multi-tenanted deployment options. This will complement the firewall capabilities of the existing VMware SD-WAN solution today. Forrester Research recently categorized VMware as one of five “large” firewall vendors in their report, Now Tech: Enterprise Firewalls, Q1 2020.
A vision for the future of work
VMware Workspace Security combines industry-leading unified endpoint management and endpoint security platform to enable customers to leverage the power of big data to provide comprehensive endpoint visibility as well as actionable insights in conjunction with data-driven prevention technology through a single dashboard.
Today, VMware announced additional Workspace ONE and Workspace Security offerings available to effectively and efficiently better secure devices, and are easy to deploy, manage, and scale including:
* VMware Workspace Security Remote – Combines industry-leading unified endpoint management (UEM), endpoint security, and remote IT support into an integrated solution to better manage and protect Mac and Windows 10 devices. While InfoSec teams focus on preventing, detecting, and responding to threats, IT teams enable broader compliance and help to operationalise security updates. Workspace Security Remote brings the two teams, technologies, and consoles closer together to enhance overall device health, provide Zero Trust access and efficiently automate threat response.
* VMware Workspace Security VDI – Integrates VMware Horizon and VMware Carbon Black Cloud into a single unified solution that helps security and IT teams deliver highly secure virtual desktops and applications. Workspace Security VDI goes beyond legacy solutions as it uniquely integrates Carbon Black technology directly into the VMware vSphere Hypervisor and VMtools to deliver an agentless approach with improved anti-tamper capabilities, audit, and remediation, and uses behavioral detection to protect against ransomware and file less malware.