By Shawn Bass, Sr. Director of Strategy and Planning, EUC, VMware
While I wasn’t working for VMware during last year’s VMworld, I was blown away by the number of amazing technologies that were shown at VMworld 2014 such as VMware’s vision for Just-in-time (JIT) Desktops, Project Meteor, Project Fargo, EVO, etc. I was already in discussions with VMware about joining them at the time, but VMworld 2014 only served to reinforce that I was making the right decision in joining the team. Thinking about this year’s VMworld, I wanted to publish a blog sharing the end-user computing (EUC) related sessions that I think are very important to catch if you’re out there for this year’s event. In my role, I tend to spend a lot of time focusing on the future of EUC, and this year’s event won’t disappoint as we’ll have a lot of content that speaks to our future innovations as well as tons of content on our existing products. I think it’s important to have a good mix of future-related strategy as well as content on existing products, so there’s value whether you’re in a forward-looking strategy role or someone who needs to actually implement the technology you’ve already committed to deploying.
Here’s a list of the top 10 sessions I’m excited about at VMworld 2015 along with a little detail on why they are very relevant.
- EUC5573 – Introducing Project Enzo – Monday 4:30pm – 5:30pm
Project Enzo is a bold, recently announced VMware EUC initiative to simplify the setup and management of virtual desktops and applications. It is focused on reducing the capital costs of a virtual desktop solution, while simplifying the operational management of virtual desktops which is a large pain point for many organizations. Enzo combines several technologies including Instant Clone (Project Fargo), App Volumes and VMware User Environment Manager to create a single pane of glass management for on premises or cloud hosted virtual desktops.
- EUC5434 – Beyond the Marketing: VMware App Volumes Technical Overview – Wednesday 8:30am-9:30am
App Volumes was first announced at VMworld 2014 as an acquisition of CloudVolumes, which was later renamed to App Volumes. It is one of the most exciting technologies within VMware EUC and it’s driving a significant amount of Horizon enterprise sales as well as being quite successful as an add-on to our competitor’s technologies. This technology is a key driver to getting customers away from persistent virtual desktop technologies, towards non-persistent virtual desktops. This is a key aspect in reducing cost and improving management as well as improving virtual desktop security.
- EUC5062 – Your Desktops Secured: What Can NSX Do for You? – Wednesday 4:00pm-5:00pm
VMware NSX is a technology with many purposes, but specifically in the context of EUC, its micro-segmentation capabilities allow an organization to greatly reduce the risk of East-West datacenter communications within a virtual desktop environment. This provides a security benefit which can greatly reduce the exposure when a machine has been compromised. This technology approach provides something that can be accomplished in a virtualized world that is unmatched in the physical desktop world.
- EUC6101 – Access Point – EUC Common Gateway – Thursday 10:30am – 11:30am
Access Point is a new unified gateway solution for a variety of EUC products. It will be the future of all gateway-related services for EUC products, so it’s important to learn about this new solution as it’s being introduced.
- EUC5626 – What Does the Merge of Desktop and Mobile Mean for the Enterprise? – Monday 3:30pm-4:30pm
As Desktop operating systems continue to implement enterprise mobility management (EMM) capabilities, it’s clear that legacy PCLM tools are quickly becoming less relevant than they were in the past. In addition, device proliferation is driving businesses to support services across any type of endpoint device. This session will shed some light on the changes that are happening with desktop and mobile operating systems and how these will be managed in the future.
- EUC5404 – Deliver High-Performance Desktops with VMware Horizon and NVIDIA GRID vGPU – Monday 12:30pm – 1:30pm
I have long been a supporter of GPU technologies in virtual desktops as it seems clear that it’s not a question of if, but when you’ll be using these technologies. Every single endpoint device, whether it’s a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, has a GPU. Virtual desktops on the other hand often do not contain a GPU and as a result cannot always provide the same level of user experience that you would have locally. This session will provide details on GPU-enhanced virtual desktops and is something that everyone should take a look at when deciding on a virtual desktop strategy.
- EUC6098 – Driving Business Mobility with AirWatch and VMware Identity – Tuesday 5:00pm-6:00pm
As endpoint device proliferation continues, so does the variety of different types of applications that a business consumer needs to use. Life was simple in a Windows-only application world, but today’s business consumers are often switching between Windows apps, Web apps and mobile apps to get their work done throughout the day. SaaS delivered applications continue to rise, and enabling business consumers to have an easy way to view all of their applications in one place, as well as access them with a single click from any device, is key to keeping them happy.
- EUC5645 – Peek into the Future: Our Vision for Business Mobility – Sunday 1:00pm to 1:30pm
As I mentioned in the beginning of blog post, I like to spend a lot of time thinking about the long term strategy and vision around end-user computing and business mobility. This session on the future of business mobility by Noah Wasmer, VP of EUC Strategy, will not disappoint.
For the last two Top 10 sessions, I would probably be silly if I didn’t include my own sessions that I’m presenting at VMworld. So here are my last two Top 10 session for VMworld EUC tracks.
- EUC5909 – VMware’s End User Computing (EUC) Strategy into 2015 and Beyond – Wednesday 1:00pm – 2:00pm
This session is a panel discussion on EUC strategy for 2015 and beyond. We’ll be covering a variety of topics related to application packaging and delivery, common capture and application cloaking, workspace environment management, VMware User Environment Manager, and more.
- EUC6225 – The Future of End User Computing – Sunday 4:00pm – 4:30pm
This session is a quick-talk session on the future of end-user computing in the next three years. It will be focused on the future of Windows in the Enterprise, and how enterprise mobility is changing along with identity, security and data. Many people that have seen me speak before know that I talk very fast and with 30 minutes to cover a lot of content, this will surely be the pace.
Follow us on Twitter at @VMwarehorizon, @AirWatch, and @Socialcast for live EUC updates from VMworld.
