When we look back at 2020, it’s easy to recognize the big milestones in such an unusual year: the tremendous usage of Horizon in the cloud, the first ever completely virtual VMworld and most importantly, all of the hard work people put in transitioning to remote work to keep people safe! With so many noteworthy trends and events, we figured it would be a good idea to look at some of the other important announcements that are worth revisiting.
A big year for VMware Horizon
In addition to support the rapid growth of VDI deployments, the Horizon team was very busy. To kick off 2020, we announced the general availability of VMware App Volumes 4. With this availability came a whole new set of features to help manage updates from the application provider and changes by the user. Then in July, App Volumes and its next-generation capabilities like Simplified Application Management (SAM) became available for Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure. With this release, customers leveraging Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure could reduce the size and quantity of their gold images. As a result, they reduced storage costs and spent less time managing images, updating images and managing applications with SAM.
2020 also showed us that there is strength in numbers, as proven by multiple Horizon-infused technologies. Take VMware and Dell EMC, for example. Dell EMC provides great solutions for hybrid infrastructure for workloads like VMware Horizon, creating a one-stop, end-to-end solution that is a simple path to a hybrid cloud VDI strategy. Together, the two allow organizations to scale their VDI environments flexibly and easily across public and private clouds.
And then there’s Azure VMware Solution. With Azure VMware Solution, users can extend the power of Horizon and vSphere to Azure, moving on-premises Horizon deployments to Azure as part of a cloud migration, or transforming their Horizon environment into an elastic hybrid and multi-cloud desktop virtualization platform.
Last but not least, there’s Google Cloud VMware Engine. This solution delivers the VMware software-defined datacenter stack as a service on Google Cloud with Google providing full, end-to-end support, including licensing, software upgrades and patching. For organizations running Horizon virtual desktops and applications, they can unlock key hybrid use cases in the cloud and through Google Cloud VMware Engine, such as datacenter extension, disaster recovery and burst capability.
Before 2020 came to a close, we also released Horizon 8, providing IT with new capabilities and deployment options to ensure that end users can work anytime, anywhere, on any device. Needless to say, Horizon was a key part of the remote work advancements that we will continue to use for the foreseeable future.
Workspace ONE Intelligence updates
Workspace ONE Intelligence released a plethora of new features and updates to help ease security concerns, assist with digital employee experience management and improve day-to-day operations. Check out the top 10 Workspace ONE Intelligence announcements from 2020 to see how this solution is integral for increasing efficiency, simplifying the remote work environment and reducing costs.
Windows 10 growth
Modern management for Windows 10 was a hot topic in the digital workspace track of VMworld 2020. In fact, VMware ranked #1 in enterprise PC management by Gartner in their Critical Capabilities for UEM Tools report last year. We also expanded PC deployment capabilities to include HP and Lenovo, in addition to our existing support for Dell, allowing organizations to take advantage of zero-touch provisioning, where PCs are prepared in the factory and shipped directly to an employee. Workspace ONE also introduced a new Enterprise App Repository, allowing for faster, more streamlined software delivery. Discover all the ways that customers are using Workspace ONE to deploy, manage and secure their Windows 10 devices.
macOS management
At VMware, we’ve been managing macOS devices with Workspace ONE for years, and we’ve been adding functionality to that management capability over time. But in October, we announced the rollout of a new functionality that allows users to manage macOS with far more granular control and automation to improve admin productivity and deliver a superior employee experience. We also announced a new badged training course for Workspace ONE macOS admins, providing an opportunity to learn about the full macOS management functionality built into Workspace ONE. You can learn more about the new functionality and training here.
Android Enterprise migration
While 2020 brought plenty of new solutions to the forefront, it also brought plans to deprecated legacy functionality. In an effort to transition users off of Android Device Administrator (which will reach end of support on March 31st, 2022), users are highly encouraged to plan a migration strategy to move to Android Enterprise. You can find an end of support timeline and other resources here.
Employee experience became crucial for remote work
Almost a year into the remote work transformation, employee experience continues to be paramount. That’s why back in May, we released an update to Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub making it more personalized, engaging and actionable. Workspace ONE Intelligence also includes Digital Employee Experience Management (DEEM), which delivers user experience analytics and insights and enables IT teams to measure and proactively improve employee experience across the digital workspace. DEEM empowers IT to take corrective actions and quickly remediate workspace issues, improving overall employee experience.
A huge part of creating a positive employee experience is providing employees with the proper tools to work effectively, whether they’re in the corporate office or the home office. By using a complete modern digital workspace platform that delivers IT modernization, Zero Trust Security, Modern Management and employee engagement, you can help close the digital workspace gap and foster a collaborative remote-first culture.
Tools for Workspace ONE admins
IT administrators have a complex landscape to navigate by delivering, securing and managing a productive digital experience for their coworkers. Luckily, 2020 provided many new, useful tools for admins to accomplish these tasks. For example, we launched the new Workspace ONE Feature Request portals, allowing you to search, vote, comment and submit ideas for EUC products including Workspace ONE. We also moved the Workspace ONE forums from www.support.workspaceone.com over to VMTN. This allows users to search through those discussions to find answers to existing questions, but also be able to continue the conversation.
To help meet the rapidly evolving needs of the modern administrator, we shared our plans for Freestyle Orchestrator, which will allow admins to create intricate workflows and unlock a significant variety of deployment use cases across their enterprise on Workspace ONE UEM. Additionally, we introduced Workspace ONE Cloud Admin Hub, a web-based administrative platform that connects end-user computing services to facilitate efficient management and delivery of the digital workspace. This solution helps break down technology barriers to achieve digital transformation success.
We want to ensure that our solutions are serving our customers well, so we introduced the VMware Digital Workspace Beta Program. This allows current customers and partners to test and provide feedback on the latest Digital Workspace products and features, such as Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub, Workspace ONE secure productivity apps, VMware Horizon and more. By establishing this two-way partnership, we can ensure that our customers are happy with our products and that we can resolve any potential issues as quickly as possible.
We hope you enjoyed this recap of some of our top announcements from 2020. Who knew that a year in quarantine could result in so much innovation?
