Is your organization adopting or looking to adopt immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) — collectively known as extended reality (XR)? As an IT administrator or innovator are you frustrated with the barriers to deploying these devices today? Read on to learn how you can avoid the manual setup and hassle of managing XR devices!
Realizing the benefits of XR for your business
Increasingly organizations are leveraging immersive technologies to deliver training, design products, and connect employees and customers. Studies show that virtual reality is 83% more effective as a training tool than traditional methods. Virtual reality is saving organizations time and money when it comes to design and media production, with the benefit of connecting global talent. Work instruction and augmented workflows using AR can reduce human error by 90% while reducing task duration by 30%. However, realizing these benefits is impossible if you can’t enroll and manage XR devices easily or at scale.
How VMware delivers zero-touch enrollment for XR devices
At VMware we have been working hard with XR hardware vendors to implement zero-touch enrollment for XR devices.
With Workspace ONE, you no longer need to manually set up devices. Instead, simply ship the XR devices to your end users and the devices can be automatically enrolled into Workspace ONE Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) to be securely managed by the enterprise. More on this below.
VMware is the only enterprise software vendor today to support zero-touch enrollment across many of the major XR devices.
Once you enroll the devices into Workspace ONE UEM, you have complete control over the devices and can manage them remotely. You’ll be able to apply device profiles, deploy applications and files, customize the in-headset experience, and much more.
Zero-touch enrollment with Meta Quest and Quest for Business
VMware is an official mobile device management (MDM) partner for Meta Quest. What that means is that Meta officially supports VMware Workspace ONE UEM for managing Quest devices when using Quest for Business. Quest for Business is a subscription service that enables Quest devices to automatically enroll into officially supported third-party MDMs/UEMs.
What do we mean by automatically enroll? Well, today without Quest for Business, devices must be plugged into a laptop or PC and a setup tool used to enroll devices. That just isn’t a scalable solution. Now with Workspace ONE UEM and Quest for Business, a user can simply turn on the device, follow the in-headset instructions, and the device will be enrolled into Workspace ONE for management. IT no longer needs to touch the device — and hence the experience is dubbed “zero touch.”
IT admins will need to set up Quest for Business by adding Workspace ONE UEM as a configuration to the service. IT admins will also need to set up their users with Quest for Business.
Aside from out-of-the-box enrollment, Workspace ONE UEM with Quest for Business has another benefit: Workspace ONE UEM and Workspace ONE XR Hub provide the most functionality of Meta’s MDM partners.
You can find more information on Quest for Business here.
You can read instructions on enrolling Quest devices into Workspace ONE UEM here.
Zero-touch enrollment for HTC VIVE XR Elite, Pico 4 Enterprise, Vuzix, Realwear, and Magic Leap
A common approach to zero touch enrollment in the wearables and rugged device space is to use QR codes. The user simply powers on the device and scans a QR code using the device, it’s that simple.
The device uses information in the QR code to automatically configure Wi-Fi, download the latest version of Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub (our agent), install the agent, and automatically enroll the device into Workspace ONE UEM.
QR code enrollment is supported with Pico 4 Enterprise, Pico Neo 3, HTC VIVE Focus 3, HTC VIVE XR Elite, Magic Leap 2, Vuzix devices, and RealWear devices — and, of course, phones and tablets.
For most devices, Workspace ONE UEM can be used by IT teams to generate a QR code that is emailed to the end user. The user simply scans the QR code with their device. For HTC devices, HTC require IT admins to generate a QR code using HTC’s format.
More information on QR Code enrollment can be found here.
Here is what QR code-based enrollment looks like on the HTC VIVE devices.
Factory provisioning of XR devices
Sometimes organizations don’t want users to go through the initial device setup screens — regardless of how easy it is now. VMware Workspace ONE UEM also supports a factory provisioning process for XR devices for this situation.
IT admins can use Workspace ONE UEM to automatically create a staging script to set up the device and install any device configurations or applications users may need. Factory provisioning devices like this does require IT to plug each device into a laptop or PC powered on for the script to be run. Once the script is run, devices can be powered off and sent to users.
Streamlined staging and supporting shared devices
In addition, and regardless of provisioning, Workspace ONE UEM supports the concept of a “staging user.” This means that all devices can be set up with just a single user account for staging purposes.
With Workspace ONE XR Hub as the kiosk mode application, a user can log in using their corporate or other credentials and “check out” the device. At that point, the device is automatically enrolled to the user and customized for their experience. Once finished with the device, the user simply logs out and the device is ready for the next user.
Utilizing a staging user for the check-in / check-out process is a very powerful way of securely sharing devices between end-users. VMware is the only vendor that offers device, app, and security management on a per user or group basis (utilising corporate identity).
In-headset experience
Finally, Workspace ONE XR Hub delivers the premium in-headset experience for VR devices such as Meta Quest, Pico, and HTC VIVE devices.
XR Hub enables the most secure access to any application in a customizable VR environment and experience. XR Hub supports many options for authentication and access control, as well as advanced features such as NVIDIA CloudXR streaming. XR Hub can also be used in “passthrough” mode to deliver 2D applications spatially while seeing the real-world environment around the user — known as “mixed reality.”
Using zero-touch enrollment, a device can be automatically configured to launch XR Hub, thus securing the device and giving users a simple and intuitive enterprise experience.
Summary
Existing VMware customers deploying immersive technologies can now adopt XR devices without worrying about how they enroll or manage devices. They can simply ship devices direct to users, who then can easily and automatically enroll devices into Workspace ONE UEM for management. VMware customers don’t need to employ point solutions for XR devices, which are expensive, force manual device setup, and don’t have the necessary enterprise features to securely scale.
