The Dell Technologies Unified Workspace is a new client solution launched collaboratively with VMware, Dell Client Services and Secureworks, which brings multiple components together into what is effectively a single SKU for customers.
Pat Gelsinger and Jeff Clarke announcing Dell Technologies Unified Workspace
LAS VEGAS – On the first day of Dell Technologies World here, the company announced a new initiative that they described as a visionary approach to end-user computing. The software backbone is VMware Workspace ONE, and it is integrated with both Dell devices and services, VMware and Secureworks to provide a comprehensive solution that extends across the Dell Technologies portfolio.
“We see this is a powerful answer to painful problems IT faces today on the client side,” said Pat Gelsinger, VMware’s CEO.
“It’s a mobile multidevice workforce that we must enable today,” Gelsinger commented, pointing out that 81 per cent of today’s workforce works outside the traditional office, and 52 per cent work in more than three places weekly.
“IT needs a strategy to support all of these devices, with simpler positioning, deployment and processes, that get the right services in the hands of your teams,” he told customers in the event’s opening keynote.
“We are making this a reality with Dell Technologies Unified Workspace, powered by VMware,” said Jeff Clarke, vice chairman of products and operations, Dell Technologies. “This expands upon what we announced on VMworld this past August. It brings everything together into a highly integrated solution that is fully secured, managed and supported, and ready to rock and roll on day one.”
“The objective is to reimagine end user computing, which has become a challenge in today’s world,” said Brett Hansen, Vice President Client Software and General Manager Data Security at Dell. “It doesn’t deliver an inspired productive environment because you can’t jump from devices seamlessly to access data anywhere. With this, we are reimagining how we deliver productivity to end users. Dell Technologies Unified Workspace brings together simplified management solutions for IT and ready-to-work-experiences for end users.”
So what does it do exactly? Dell Technologies Unified Workspace will indicate the the specific devices and applications that an organization needs based on their specific usage. It will then deliver those personalized devices directly to the end user, preconfigured and preloaded with all the apps and security features they need without IT having to touch the device. It will then assist in the management of the devices, proactively helping the end user resolve day-to-day IT issues like password resets, access to applications and lost VPN connections.
“Two elements make this unique,” Hansen said. “First, we recognize the world is heterogeneous, so we will work with non-Dell devices and management paradigms. We are very passionate about delivering the best solution in a calculated manner but with an open approach. Second is the opportunity to leverage telemetry – our ability to harness that information and use it to drive specific use cases. That’s at the foundation of what Unified Workspace is.”
Hansen acknowledged that Unified Workspace isn’t new technology, but rather basically a single SKU from Dell Technologies to simplify comprehension and integration of the process across multiple parts of their portfolio.
“We are highlighting the integration that we have,” he said. “Customers are concerned about linking all the different pieces together.”
“Customers don’t want to be systems integrators any more,” Michael Dell stated, emphasizing that Unified Workspace is one of several elements the company announced Monday showing the vision that it has across all technologies to enable their customers’ digital futures.
“We have also taken major steps in security with this,” Gelsinger added. “We have also simplified management with the Dell Client Command Suite.
With Unified Workspace, Dell Technologies is introducing a new capability to Dell SafeBIOS – an off-host BIOS verification utility available as a standalone download and also integrated with VMware Workspace ONE, Secureworks and CrowdStrike.
“As part of this announcement, we are expanding our security and compliance capability, by partnering with CrowdStrike and integrating with SecureWorld,” said Courtney Burry, VP End-User Computing, Product marketing, VMware. “We are also introducing a remote verification tool which will verify BIOS across all devices sitting in the cloud, to ensure compliance across all devices, which will be able to work with Command Suite for automation and Intelligence.”
This will proactively detect attacks against the BIOS, and builds on other components within Unified Workspace to keep endpoints secure, such as Dell SafeGuard and Response, which combines the managed security, incident response expertise and threat behavioral analytics of Secureworks with the unified endpoint protection platform from CrowdStrike.
“This is all supported by Dell ProDeploy services,” Clarke added. For example, Dell ProSupport Plus with SupportAssist has helped customers reduce time to resolve a failed hard drive up to 11x faster. With even more telemetry, IT can support their end users with real-time visibility, proactive fixes and prescriptive updates.
Most of the components of Dell Technologies Unified Workspace are available today. The Dell SafeBIOS downloadable verification utility will be available May 2019. The verification utility integration with VMware Workspace ONE, Secureworks and CrowdStrike will be available in Q2 CY19.
