VMware predicts that work-from-home is going to be a phenomenon that persists long after the pandemic, so it’s combining three of its products to meet the need and calling the combined trio VMware Anywhere Workspace.
Shankar Iyer, SVP and GM for end-user computing at VMware, said on a call with media that 2020 saw a dramatic shift to remote work. “We believe this is going to lead to an anywhere-organization, which is far more than remote work,” said Iyer.
VMware commissioned some studies that found many employees will work in a hybrid mode — part-time remote and part-time in the office — moving forward. These studies concluded that 61% of people feel that remote work is no longer a perk, it’s a requirement. And the vast majority of employees say it’s the employer’s responsibility to provide the appropriate access to the necessary digital tools to enable remote work.
To meet the anticipated demand, the company is bringing together three of its technologies: 1) Workspace One to provide app virtualization and to manage endpoint devices; 2) Carbon Black Cloud for security; and 3) VMware SASE, which is built on its SD-WAN product VeloCloud.
All of these products that make up VMware Anywhere Workspace are available now.
VMware’s CTO of End-User Computing Shawn Bass said when the Covid pandemic struck, the company saw “broad deployments” of its VeloCloud product as everyone left the office and moved to their home connection. Companies that simply used VPN technology to serve their home-based employees “lost visibility to end users,” said Bass. This caused organizations to re-think their security and VPN technologies.
Basically, the pandemic propelled more people to SASE, which blends SD-WAN with security.
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Joe Skorupa, one of the Gartner analysts who coined the term SASE, said the concept came about a few years ago when SD-WAN was becoming incredibly popular, but it “broke security” in the WAN, and that caused the rethinking of security.
Today, VMware is not only blending SD-WAN and security with its SASE product, but it’s also adding other existing products – Carbon Black and Workspace One. The company said it’s bringing these products together because many of its customers prefer them to be integrated rather than standalone products.
Iyer also said security is an overarching concern for enterprises, “perhaps the most dominant for CIOs.”
One of VMware’s customers is AMTI, a technology and systems provider based in the Philippines. Josefino Paloma, general manager for ICT solutions at AMTI, said, “Our work-from-home program began two years ago to address the worsening traffic in metro Manila. Covid accelerated this initiative and Anywhere Workspace technologies enabled us to deliver a productive work environment for our employees. We will never go back to having everyone work from the office and Anywhere Workspace technologies will play a critical role in supporting a hybrid workforce.”
Another VMware customer is Deutsche Telekom. Florian Mösch, senior executive program manager at DT, said, “I don’t expect to see a dramatic change in the current distributed work situation but rather adjustments to it. For instance, employees are not likely to return to the office five days a week, but maybe once a week or on a bi-weekly basis. Solutions like VMware Anywhere Workspace will make it easier for organizations to support employee choice while maintaining productivity and preserving its collaborative culture.”