On 23-24 October 2024, just four months after becoming an independent software business, Omnissa (formerly VMware EUC) hosted its inaugural EMEA customer and partner event in Amsterdam, Omnissa ONE. Approximately 700 attendees from customer and partner organisations attended the event featuring executive sessions and mainstage presentations to take a comprehensive look at Omnissa’s strategic direction and product roadmaps.
Robin Gardner, Xtravirt’s Strategic Services Director, was in attendance and shares his insights from the event.
Clear expectations
Going into Omnissa ONE in Amsterdam last week, there were two areas of focus for me. Firstly, to see how Omnissa would secure its brand positioning and identity following its separation from VMware by Broadcom, and secondly, I wanted to better understand Omnissa’s focus on the product portfolio and how they anticipate instilling confidence in both customers and partners.
The atmosphere was exactly what you’d hope for at an industry event of this calibre with a good balance of partners and customers, which created an environment perfect for meaningful discussions and sharing insights.
Key messages from the leadership
One of the most significant moments came during the keynote session. The message was crystal clear: Omnissa’s exit from Broadcom is complete and they are now standing firmly on their own feet. What reassured me most was how they positioned their success metrics – it’s all about driving investment in expanding the features, functionality and performance across their portfolio to ensure ongoing importance to customers, resulting in extended adoption and growth. Shankar Iyer, Omnissa CEO, clearly believes that if their products don’t continue to demonstrate value then their ability to grow with customers is going to be constrained. There’s a beautiful alignment here which intrinsically links the goals of customers, partners, and Omnissa themselves.
Then – possibly of more immediate importance to the customers in the room, there was specific acknowledgement of industry-wide concerns about unexpected price increases and Omnissa made a clear commitment to price stability, offering customers transparency and more predictable cost management.
Sessions that caught my attention
The roadmap sessions for Omnissa’s two core products, Horizon and Workspace ONE had extensive depth across security, performance and new features. Some of the key areas that I believe will make a rapid and real difference include:
- End user experience improvements: This includes monitoring and managing the user experience, increasing capability for shared devices, closing the gaps between Horizon and a physical device experience, and focusing on bringing Horizon and Workspace ONE functionality together in a seamless way.
- Flexible deployment options: Omnissa is expanding the choices for delivery of both Horizon 8 and Horizon Cloud to include native AWS Workspaces Core and Google Cloud Environment, with further options in the pipeline.
- Evolving to support new technologies and features: Workspace ONE UEM now supports Apple Vision Pro, along with Apple’s new Declarative Device Management and Google’s AMAPI to improve management of mobile devices.
- Operational management enhancements: New management interfaces and multi-tenant management tools will provide significant gains in efficiency and service consistency for organisations like Xtravirt, who provide Day 2 operations and ongoing support for multiple customers operating their own on-premise installations.
What this all means for customers
The focus is squarely on increasing value from Horizon and Workspace ONE. While performance and stability benefits will be realised automatically as upgrades are deployed, the real value lies in customers understanding and planning paths to embrace new features and functionality.
From my perspective, organisations need to take a proactive approach:
- Clearly understand the current value that Workspace ONE and Horizon provide for your organisation and ensure actions are in place to maximise these existing benefits
- Take time to assess the as-yet unadopted and newly launched features
- Map the functionality to your organisational needs and identify opportunities for early benefit
- Prioritise testing and validation of the functionality
- Plan rollouts and measure success, creating future sponsors from early adopters
- Ensure robust and proactive operational management for ongoing value to be realised
The partner role
I firmly believe that the key to success here lies in working with a partner who delivers continuous value, and I urge customers to ask themselves, “does your current partner work proactively with you to ensure you are gaining full advantage from your investments in Horizon and Workspace ONE platforms to deliver better outcomes for your IT team and your business?”
Organisations that take a proactive approach to product adoption AND choose to partner with value-focused service providers will see the greatest return on their platform choices. A partner who regularly reviews functional benefits and product strategy against a customer’s business needs and is committed to a long-term partnership with the customer will provide infinitely more value than an IT provider who only engages with the customer at renewal time. A continuous review process creates a win-win situation. Not only does it drive value for customers, but it also strengthens the relationships between all parties – customer, partner, and Omnissa.
My final thoughts
Coming away from Omnissa ONE, I’m convinced that they have successfully navigated that early reinforcement of relevance and have positioned themselves well for the future. Their commitment to product development, stable pricing, and strong partner relationships shows they understand what customers need. But success will require effort from all sides – it’s not just about having access to new features; it’s about implementing them effectively and strategically.
The real opportunity lies in organisations realising the untapped opportunity within the platforms that they have and taking a proactive approach to adoption – working with partners who can accelerate these gains and provide ongoing value.
Xtravirt, an Omnissa Principal Partner
Whether you want to discuss digital workplace solutions for your organisation, or simply want to discover how partnering with Xtravirt can enable you to realise your IT strategy and business goals, please email us. A member of our team will be happy to have a chat.
