In its final year as a standalone event before merging with VMworld, AirWatch Connect delivered a great final act for the 1,700 enterprise mobility pros that came to Atlanta from around the world to learn, discover and connect.
Sanjay Poonen, head of VMware end-user computing, gave the keynote address in which he continued to emphasize the VMware AirWatch vision for a ubiquitous digital workforce. Just last month, Poonen talked extensively about this topic at VMworld:
“The first industrial revolution was all about steam and mechanization. The second industrial revolution was about the early forms of mass production. The third industrial revolution was about electronics in the form of the computer. But the fourth revolution we think is going to be huge, because it’s going to influence every part of our lives.”
Poonen spent most of his time on stage giving personal, even emotional, examples of how digital has impacted our everyday lives. You can view his keynote here: http://www.air-watch.com/connect/atlanta-2016/videos/.
In a video interview with Yahoo Tech’s David Pogue following his AirWatch keynote, Sanjay Poonen, spoke in-depth about VMware’s mission to “help enterprises on their journey to mobility.” The main issue right now, according to Poonen, is all about making business apps and workflows consumer-simple:
“The enterprise tends to get security right, but what we need to learn from consumer companies is simplicity. We’re really trying to bring security and consumer simple together.”
Poonen went on to discuss how ‘consumer simple, enterprise secure’ is imperative to the younger generation, especially millennials.
“The younger generation has a different experience because they have been using consumer software their whole lives. They have changed the way in which enterprises build their software today.”
Windows 10
During Connect, AirWatch emphasized its commitment to unified endpoint management with Windows 10. Blake Brannon, VP of Product Marketing for VMware EUC had this to say:
“The next generation of devices powered by Windows 10—including the
[Surface] Hub and HoloLens—offer new ways for employees to collaborate and deliver both intuitive and powerful ways for workplace productivity. At Connect Atlanta, we showed that AirWatch is deeply committed to supporting Windows 10 across any device and use case and; ensuring a secure and well-managed workspace for our customers.”
We at PowWow Mobile share this same vision, as we most recently announced our native support for Windows UWP. We are committed to accelerating enterprise mobility and now offer our customers a seamless and secure way to transform any Windows or web application into a native mobile app for use on any Windows 10 device family.
News and Announcements from AirWatch Connect 2016
In addition to the keynote, here are our top takeaways from Connect:
- Unified endpoint management between VMware and AirWatch – VMware announced two UEM updates, including support for Windows-based and Android-based IoT devices. TechRepublic has a nice overview
- AirWatch 9.0 support for augmented reality and smart glasses – Anticipating future trends in virtual and augmented reality, AirWatch released version 9.0 with added support for augmented reality devices, including IoT and headsets. TechTarget has more here.
- New Members to The AppConfig Community – We weren’t the only ones to join the AppConfig Community last week. Blackberry, Matrix42 and our friends at Capriza also announced their acceptance into the enterprise mobility standards organization. Read more about the AppConfig Community in our previous blog.
Our Takeaway
For us at PowWow Mobile, AirWatch Connect reiterated that enterprises are truly ready to invest time, budget and resources into creating a digital workplace. While concerns over security, control, deployment and user experience remain, it’s clear that in the measurement of risk vs. reward; reward is winning – and it’s not even close.
In the spirit of ‘enterprise secure, consumer simple,’ PowWow Mobile can mobilize a
ll enterprise apps, including Windows, while maintaining security and providing a great user experience. Line of business apps for sales and marketing, corporate shared service IT apps, apps running Microsoft, Citrix and VMware environments, and business application from Oracle, Salesforce, SAP and many others. We can transform all of your legacy applications into modern, intuitive and responsive mobile apps and even help create innovative, new smart functionality that enables your business to run anywhere, on any device.
Another lesson learned for us is that an IoT wine bottle (Kuvee.com) is great for conversation starters. Want to win one? Come visit us at the ETxChange in Palm Beach Florida on October 23-25 OCT or at GSMA Mobility Live! in Atlanta on November 1-2.
See you all next year in Las Vegas!
