VMworld 2016 Day Three: End User Computing

End user computing might not be the first thing that you think about when VMware comes up but they have done a great deal of work with their unified endpoint management strategy.

In a session at VWworld 2016, Mark Margevicius Director, EUC Strategy for VMware, explained that the industry is at a huge inflection point. Up until a few years ago Windows and PC were the only important end user devices and they essentially set the scope for what IT needed to do to support the end user.  He went on to say all that changed with the advent of the cloud, Macs, smartphones and other devices. Now IT needs to support and securely manage all types of user devices. VMware has three primary goals for their end user computing initiatives: 

Workspace One is VMware’s solution to end user and multiple device support issues. Workspace One is a collection of assets that addresses these goals and solve the problem of multiple device management by delivering apps and service in a unified and secure way. Workspace One consists of three main components:

A couple of the latest enhancements to Workspace One include better support for Office 356 as well as  enhancements to the underlying Blast protocol to provide more efficient bandwidth usage and improved support for Windows 10.

Margevicius also said that one of the main concerns for most organizations today is the ongoing migration to Windows 10 and that Workspace One’s AirWatch component can help businesses with that process.

In his keynote at VMworld, VMware Pat Gelsinger suggested that show attendees ask VMware employees to demonstrate how VMware Workspace One gives them SSO and a device agnostic workspace. Margevicius showed me how his iPhone and Surface Book provided seamless access to his Workspace One profile. The iPhone enabled access to all his apps using simple SSO with his thumbprint. He also noted that VMware's Windows 10 support provided SSO using Windows Hello and had full touch support.