Extended reality (XR) and spatial computing enable organizations to design and visualize products, train employees, simulate complex environments, and boost productivity across a variety of industries. Now, VMware is collaborating with NVIDIA to deliver scalable and secure XR streaming with VMware Workspace ONE, VMware Horizon, and NVIDIA CloudXR. This collaboration allows industries, such as architecture and healthcare, to realize the immediate benefits of XR.
Standalone virtual reality (VR) devices, or headsets with a built-in processor that don’t need to be connected to a computer to work, have lowered the cost of XR. They also offer the benefit of mobility — which allows organizations to scale up their XR deployments. Using VMware Workspace ONE Unified Endpoint Management (UEM), businesses can secure and manage standalone VR devices at scale. Workspace ONE UEM is the only enterprise solution that provides zero-touch enrollment across the most common XR devices.
However, standalone VR devices lack the compute and graphics resources to deliver the high-fidelity experiences that are possible with powerful graphics workstations. Large CAD, architectural models, or simulations simply can’t run on standalone VR devices.
One approach to solving this problem is to run high-fidelity experiences on a graphics workstation or a PC and then stream the experience to a standalone VR device.
However, the current approach to this solution is not scalable or easy to use. First, users need access to a graphics workstation or PC. Next, they have to log in to the PC, launch their experience, note the IP address of the PC, and then manually configure their standalone VR device to connect to the PC. This process is cumbersome and defeats the point of the mobile standalone VR device.
To address these challenges, VMware has worked with NVIDIA to deliver high-fidelity, easy-to-use experiences on low-cost, standalone VR devices — at scale, anywhere.
Workspace ONE XR Hub + VMware Horizon + NVIDIA CloudXR
Using Workspace ONE XR Hub, VMware Horizon, and NVIDIA CloudXR, organizations can now stream high-fidelity XR experiences from a virtual desktop to a standalone VR device — with just one click.
Workspace ONE XR Hub provides a secure, enterprise, in-headset experience that enables users to access their XR applications and content on a standalone VR device. Most important, Workspace ONE XR Hub can provide seamless access to a remotely running (streamed) XR experience by using NVIDIA CloudXR to stream the experience from a virtual desktop managed by Horizon.
Rather than having to provide a user with a graphics workstation, organizations can leverage Horizon to automatically provision virtual desktops (backed by an NVIDIA virtual GPU) in the data center or in the cloud. Pools of virtual workstations can act as hosts for high-fidelity immersive applications, and those virtual workstations can be accessed from anywhere.
Workspace ONE XR Hub provides single-click access to immersive applications running on a Horizon virtual desktop, so users don’t have to manually set up a PC or a standalone VR device. Instead, they simply log in to XR Hub, click on the application in the XR Hub Unified App Catalog, are automatically connected to their virtual desktop and the immersive application is streamed to the standalone device.
VMware leverages the best-of-breed streaming protocol in NVIDIA CloudXR, which combines the power of NVIDIA RTX GPUs and NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS) software to stream high-fidelity XR applications to Android and iOS devices. By dynamically adjusting to network conditions, CloudXR maximizes image quality and frame rates to power next-level, wireless augmented reality and virtual reality experiences.
Workspace ONE XR Hub 23.07 is now available
Workspace ONE XR Hub 23.07 was recently released and is available to download from https://my.workspaceone.com for existing customers and partners.
Workspace ONE XR Hub provides:
- In-headset enterprise experience
- Authentication using corporate credentials
- Customizable UX and branding
- Kiosk mode
- Unified App Catalog
- Single sign-on to applications
- Launch native VR and WebXR applications
- Access Web, SaaS, and VDI apps in VR
- Passthrough mode for mixed reality
Learn more about Workspace ONE XR Hub and Workspace ONE UEM.
Now announcing NVIDIA CloudXR Suite
CloudXR Suite combines all the richness of PC VR experiences with the freedom and convenience of mobile XR devices. It comprises three components and includes several important updates:
- CloudXR Essentials provides the underlying streaming layer, complete with new optimizations, algorithms, and enhanced logging tools. It also includes the new CloudXR Server application programming interface, which can be directly integrated into XR applications and removes the need for a separate XR run-time.
- CloudXR Server Extensions includes the new open-source industry standard, OpenXR runtime, which allows scaling in Windows and Linux platforms.
- CloudXR Client Extensions offers a Unity plug-in for CloudXR, which allows users to build custom CloudXR client applications with Unity development tools.
To learn more about NVIDIA CloudXR Suite and apply for access, read this NVIDIA blog.
