GUIfication of workspaces is generating a quarter of VMware's APJ income

Almost 25 per cent of cloud infrastructure provider VMware’s business in Asia Pacific-Japan circle, is generated from end user computing solutions, said company spokespersons. These solutions allow employees to access work-related softwares and applications without the physical limitations of using company-provided devices.

“End user computing now generates serious business. In Asia Pacific and Japan, one out of every four dollars generated is through an end user computing service. Retail industry is driven by businesses making different end user computing decisions,” said Sumit Dhawan, Senior Vice President and General Manager, End User Computing Desktop Business, VMware.

In India, companies like SBI, IDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Zomato and a host of educational institutions are just some of the organisations to have benefitted from these solutions. One digital forward state government has adopted these services to provide digital learning facilities to students, although the company did not name them.

A recent study by Forbes and VMware reported that when companies provide work-related apps to employees, they report five times higher productivity and save almost 20 per cent time spent on manual processes.

The driving factor behind increasing adoption of this solution, known as Workspace, is the simple GUI-based interface that reduces the end user’s job greatly. Traditionally you have to depend on your organisation to provide computing devices, software etc to you.

“With Workspace one, you bring whatever device you are comfortable with and your organisation just tells you to download the Workspace One app on your device from an appstore to manage your work. Depending on your employee credentials you get access to a host of apps within this ecosystem. Beyond this, the company doesn’t have to worry about securing individual applications that you access but simply how you access your Workspace One account,” said Sanjay Deshmukh, Vice President, End User Computing, Asia Pacific & Japan, VMware.

Dhawan adds that in case of a security threat like WannaCry attacks, such solutions would ensure shorter time to figure out which devices are vulnerable. Plus these solutions let users work with devices that they are comfortable in.

VMware claims that these solutions are so easy to use that they require one-tenth of the usual workforce for delivering traditional services as more time is spent on providing better user experience rather than fixing glitches on the physical device.

“You don’t need people to manage desktops and system software. For our platform you need people who can define service definition, policies, security definition and user experience, “said Dhawan.  The comprehensive GUI-based interface on workspaces does not prevent administrators from customising access and capabilities of users, he adds.

VMware has deployed these solutions across number of educational institutions in India such that it is among the top three investment areas in India along with banking services, healthcare and manufacturing.

The company doesn’t see a single source of competition in this product range since it incorporates a number of different solutions across the board. Traditionally companies may use different solutions like Microsoft may provide desktop solutions, Mobile Iron provides mobile management, IBM may provide identity management or even a Citrix with virtual desktop solutions to achieve a similar goal.

“Our main growth metric is to see how we can enable the customer to drive digital workspace solutions faster. Not all customers might think the same way about having a single point platform like this. We have to invest a lot of efforts on educating them and business leaders about the value proposition of this platform,” said Deshmukh.