Convergence: To Serve The Needs Of End User Computing

With the announcement of our next-gen container focused on managing and securing web-based apps, code-named Project SkyNet, we’ve been talking to a LOT of analysts lately about End User Computing (EUC) in general and the trends they are seeing. And by a lot, I mean somewhere around 15 different firms and counting. Interestingly, these analysts cover mobile, virtualization (server and VDI), security, and Windows management (again both desktop and server) as a team, but rarely did we find a single analyst with a view on everything EUC. Given the trends we discussed, I suspect we’ll see convergence on the people side as well as the technology side of things.

So what have we learned over the last month+ presenting our vision for the future to some very smart people?

1. We need to flip this thing on its head

And by “we”, I mean the collective we of technologists – vendors and practitioners alike. We need to spend our time thinking about the problem from the end-user’s perspective, not on “how categories of technologies are beginning to overlap.” Those wild-and-wooly end users – employees, temps, contractors, short-term consultants, independent agents, business partners, and anyone else you can think of that need access to your systems – are doing all kinds of crazy things. Traditional time and/or location bound workers (e.g. call center operators) are taking their work on the go. You can find knowledge workers using a crazy combo of a MacBook at home, traditional Windows laptop at work, iPad tablet, and an Android smartphone. And workers inside and out of the C-suite who handle sensitive info are being targeted by very specific security attacks. We need to be thinking about how we can get users on and off these devices as quickly as possible and make sure they are as productive as they can be, no matter which device they pick up.

2. IT needs what it always needs

In the chaos that is today’s End User Computing environment, IT must still satisfy the needs of all user groups, lower costs, and make sure that what they are providing to the organization is actually doing what it is supposed to do. That means the tools they buy to accomplish these goals need to simplify the environment, meet with end user approval (if visible to users), and create efficiencies without requiring a lot of supporting infrastructure.

3. There are gaps in EUC solutions, and they are in fact converging as they work to cover those gaps

Let’s start with the biggest of the gaps – device type and OS platform coverage. Client management tools from vendors like Dell, IBM, LanDesk, Microsoft, and Symantec have been adding support for mobile OS’s over the last 3+ years, but have been unable to compete with the dedicated Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) vendors like AirWatch, Fiberlink, MobileIron, and Zenprise. Which is part of why you’ve seen a number of acquisitions in this space.

Meanwhile, with the traditional operating systems Windows and Mac OS X converging their management APIs across desktop and mobile, the EMM vendors are now adding light management support for laptops. But they are not architected for moving around large file sizes or dealing with Windows image management, and users are not comfortable with employers putting full device management agents on their personal machines.

VDI vendors Citrix and VMware claim they can provide you with seamless transition between devices – start a doc on your laptop, finish it on your tablet (notice they are responsible for two of the mobile acquisitions mentioned above), but that requires a massive backend infrastructure and a top-notch network connection. Not to mention users really want the work experience to be appropriate to the device they are using at the time, which is why many organizations have stopped at simply allowing users to access an authorized cloud storage and file sync service – figuring as long as users can get to their files, they can figure out the rest I guess. Of course this approach has some major security, productivity, and possibly licensing holes and really should just be thought of as a backend feature that makes the other products work.

Now if we go back and look at the first two lessons learned above, it’s clear that the needs of neither end users or IT are being met in this picture: multiple solutions to install and manage with some overlap in functionality, without fully supporting users where, when, and how they want to work. This is where End User Computing solutions need to be. The key is to quit worrying about the device. Manage the workspace and the secure the data in it, instead.

Moka5 offers an alternative approach, based on containerization, that gives users access to the apps and files they need on the devices they want to work on any network connection, or none at all. Our unified Enterprise AnyWare platform is built from the ground up for Windows, Macs, bare metal machines, and mobile devices. It can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or somewhere in-between and offers end users self-service provisioning and many other control options over their environment. Meanwhile, for IT with Moka5 layering technologies, image management and updates become a breeze. Of course separating the workspace from the host device and protecting it with encryption and data loss prevention controls doesn’t mean you can ignore an unmanaged/untrusted host entirely. Moka5 also enables you to perform host security checks like malware scans, checking patch levels, and looking for the presence and status of any required software before decrypting and allowing users into their workspace.

This puts Moka5 right square in the middle of leading the way in End User Computing.

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