Hello from VMware Explore 2022! The mix of in-person and remote attendance at this year’s event is a great testament to how a hybrid model makes experiences accessible, regardless of location, for large events like Explore and day-to-day work, alike. We remain committed to investing in the Workspace ONE platform to help IT organizations drive modernization and navigate the complexities that come with enabling hybrid work.
Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) remains a critical solution for enabling and better securing hybrid work experiences. We are pleased to be recognized for our products in the areas of UEM, ruggedized/IoT devices, Apple devices, and additional use cases.
At Explore this year, our speakers are participating in many exciting sessions. In the Hybrid Workforce solutions keynote, EUC General Manager Shankar Iyer will discuss the innovations that advance and expand what is possible with UEM.
Now, we are excited to present our vision for the future of workspace management, plus share Workspace ONE UEM product updates and platform improvements.
Autonomous workspaces
As the adoption of hybrid work accelerates, IT is faced with increasing complexity while balancing employee experience, identity, security, and myriad other responsibilities. Over the years, we have used UEM as a vehicle to address these arising challenges. Unified management with Workspace ONE eliminates reliance on disparate tools, which is often associated with endpoint diversity. Workspace ONE Intelligence adds monitoring, analytics, and automations for endpoints and users. Freestyle Orchestrator uses granular rules to further the automation of repetitive IT tasks, relieving manual oversight.
Now we are set to unveil the next evolution of the platform with “autonomous workspaces.” With autonomous workspaces, VMware will utilize proactive, data-driven automations that are self-driven by the digital workspace platform, better ensuring your organization’s desired state across management, security, and end-user experiences. Requiring limited to no manual interaction, autonomous workspaces will deliver self-configuring, self-healing, and self-securing outcomes for your workspace.
Freestyle Orchestrator for Mobile
Freestyle Orchestrator will support iOS and Android mobile platforms, expected in Tech Preview soon. A key component of the autonomous workspace, Freestyle Orchestrator is Workspace ONE’s low-code automation framework, previously exclusive to Windows and Mac desktop operating systems. Its modern canvas UI enables admins to drag and drop UEM resources, conditions, and logic to efficiently create complex IT workflows. The expansion of Freestyle Orchestrator to mobile will allow a wide array of scenarios to be supported, from onboarding flows with a sequence of application and profile installations to critical Tunnel and VPN setup.
Also coming in Tech Preview soon is the Workspace ONE Cloud Marketplace, which will catalog pre-defined solutions and third-party integrations to match your enterprise needs. Cloud Marketplace will make it simple to import scripts, templates, and other resources to power dashboard and automation tasks with complex insights and data intelligence.
Windows multi-user support
Workspace ONE support for Windows OS multi-user mode is now available in Tech Preview for Azure Active Directory-based deployments; and it will soon be extended to Active Directory-based deployments. Utilizing both device-based and user-based profiles provides deep levels of customization based on who logs into the device. Common apps can be made available across all users, while user-specific apps and profiles are layered on, based on login credentials. The flexibility of multi-user mode makes it a great fit for frontline shared use, loaner devices, or hoteling scenarios with employees returning to the office.
Platform enhancements
Many additional feature set updates are being added to the Workspace ONE platform. True to the UEM goal of managing many types of endpoints, Workspace ONE UEM will soon make available XR Hub for AR/VR devices. This highly anticipated solution enables identity and access controls and customizable experiences across augmented workflows, immersive training, and collaboration.
Our partnership with Intel progressed this year with the general availability of our integration between Intel vPro and Workspace ONE. Since then, we have started a partner program to extend this solution to more customers.
For desktops, data-driven user interface (DDUI) recently came to macOS, and will be expanding to Windows. Advanced update management for Windows will be available soon, with macOS following.
Among mobile platforms, a key area of focus is desired state management. This is a concept in which a device is given a desired state made up of configurations, accounts, apps, and more. The device proactively and autonomously installs these resources based on its defined desired state. Both Apple and Google have announced their own implementations: Declarative Device Management for iOS and Android Management API (AMAPI). Our teams are currently working on integrations for both iOS and Android. A Tech Preview for Work Profile on AMAPI is expected to launch in this quarter.
In the world of ChromeOS, organizations have long been divided into two licensing camps: Enterprise and Education. The new Chrome Policy API unifies the two and enables management of both by Workspace ONE. VMware has recently launched a beta release for Enterprise and Education customers to try the new Chrome Policy API with Workspace ONE.
Learn more
For more about the latest Workspace ONE UEM updates, check out our Workspace ONE UEM breakout sessions at VMware Explore 2022.
For more VMware Explore news, see our VMware Explore 2022 Anywhere Workspace, Workspace ONE, and Horizon announcement overview and all of the articles in our VMware Explore 2022 category.
