Workspace on any device, any app, on any location, however last year was already all about the three any’s this year VMware announced a few new features for Horizon, UEM, DEM and Intelligence. I follwed a few sessions about integration each others and what brings the future.

So here we go, a few write down notes;

•  VMware DEM integrated with UEM
• VMware Workspace ONE Intelligence for Horizon
• Workspace One Assist for Horizon
• Horizon Universal Console/Broker
• Azure Migrate Appliance

VMware DEM integrated with UEM

VMware DEM is a great tool to implement ADMX/GPO based settings, Application Blocking, Application settings (predefined) or specific shortcuts/task. Previously VMware DEM was originally designed for Workspace/VDI environments. The last big change was to support Privilege Elevation until i saw the presentation about integrating DEM with UEM. On newer versions it is possible to integrated DEM with UEM to managing local machines without a domain membership. Configuration file will be deployed Through smart groups within UEM and the installation of the agent can be done at the normal way, while pushing applications in the console. So far i known it isn’t possible to deploy these file with a Microsoft mdm solution because it needs the hub agent of Workspace One.   

VMware Workspace ONE Intelligence for Horizon

Workspace One intelligence was already deployed for saas customers in combination with UEM and as additional option Carbon Black. While doing workspace One jobs, Intelligence provide a lot of information about the health of devices and installed apps. You could also detect and react on several cases. New For 2022 is that Intelligence will be delivered to Horizon for (i think) cloud customers in combination with the universal broker. This is great and i’m looking forward it. 

Workspace One Assist for Horizon

Workspace One Assist already exist for workspace one UEM as an additional option (purchased) to provide remote assist for all kind of devices, there was no integration with Horizon until now! Workspace One Assist for Horizon is an cloud-based solution which has been integrated with the Universal Console. Because it is integrated it’s supports local and cloud deployments. When the environment is connected to the universal console/broker, you can use the integration of Assist. At this moment i don’t know if Assist will come free to use for cloud customers…. therefore we need to wait.

For more information

Horizon Universal Console/Broker Service

This Console is not new, the name has been changed last year from “Horizon Cloud Administration Console” to Horizon Universal Console. Integration with assist and intelligence was for me new.

With the Horizon Universal Broker Service you can integrate local desktop pods and pods that are running in the cloud to one user friendly console. It adds an extra layer on top of the horizon environment. Users can connect to the environment with a single URL and the Universal Broker forward that request to the right pod (on-prem or cloud) if the on-prem pod doesn’t have available desktops, the request will be forwarded to the cloud. 

To integrated the on-prem environment you need to install the Horizon Universal broker plugin and Horizon cloud connector. 

Azure Migrate Appliance

The migrate appliance for migrating vm’s to Azure was already a known product for server environments. During a call something triggered me regarding converting and importing VDi base images within the cloud console of Azure. Microsoft supports only VHD(X) formats instead of VMDK formats. Therefore before uploading to azure you need to convert the base to another format. With the Azure Migrate Appliance you can automated the convert and upload process to Azure.

So this is a great tip 😉