VMware AirWatch UEM Adds Adaptiva Technology To Unify Modern And Legacy Windows Apps

VMware has unveiled a partnership with Adaptiva to expand its endpoint management solution to embrace both mobile applications and legacy 32-bit Windows applications.

Under the new partnership, announced Wednesday, the VMware AirWatch Unified Endpoint Management solution will be integrated with the Adaptiva OneSite peer-to-peer systems management technology as a way to bring mobile device management and PC management capabilities into a single platform, according to Adi Kunduri, product marketing manager for AirWatch UEM solutions.

AirWatch Unified Endpoint Management (UEM), in the past, had been expanded to include management of Win32 legacy desktop apps, Kunduri told CRN.

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The latest version of AirWatch UEM, released in December, included single sign-on for Win32 desktop applications, and eased somewhat the ability to manage Win32 applications, including doing updates and patches, Kunduri said.

"But there was still a major gap in the ability to distribute these applications in a scalable fashion," he said. "There were troubleshooting issues, and multiple points of failure. And the user experience took a back seat. It was not easy to deploy the applications."

VMware's partnership with Bellevue, Wash.-based Adaptiva addresses those issues, Kunduri said.

Adaptiva's OneSite peer-to-peer technology lets customers leverage cloud distribution to deliver apps over the internet, he said. "Adaptiva's peer-to-peer technology essentially caches the apps into the endpoints themselves," he said. "Think of 100 endpoints in an office. Adaptiva lets users download the same app instead of 100 copies."

The Adaptiva technology also de-dupes data, and offers local caching, which Kunduri said leads to better optimization of a company's IT infrastructure.

"2017 will be a key year for Windows 10 migration," he said. "For customers to manage their legacy applications, along with Windows 10, they need unified management. AirWatch UEM with Adaptiva can manage and stream live the distribution of all modern mobile apps along with legacy Win32 apps."

AirWatch UEM with Adaptiva fills in an important gap between unified endpoint management and a full virtual desktop infrastructure solution like VMware Horizon View, said Jamie Shepard, senior vice president for healthcare and strategy at Lumenate, a Dallas-based solution provider and long-time VMware channel partner.

"VDI is widely disruptive," Shepard told CRN. "Most businesses could use VDI to run up to 70 percent of their companies with no more worries about patching applications or refreshing their devices."

VMware has bet heavily on AirWatch and virtual desktop infrastructure, Shepard said. However, the adoption of virtual desktop technology takes time, and in the meantime, customers are finding it more and more difficult to patch and update their applications manually.

"VMware is saying, 'Screw it,'" he said. "It decided to work with Adaptiva."

VMware's AirWatch relationship with Adaptiva is similar to its relationship with Skycure, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based provider of mobile device threat management technology, Shepard said.

"Skycure lets AirWatch know what devices are connected to," he said. "Now, by adding Adaptiva, AirWatch can watch the endpoints and know what's happening."

This is a very smart move for VMware, Shepard said.

"VMware has been patiently waiting for increased adoption of its Horizon View," he said. "If I were a business customer, I'd adopt VMware's WorkSpace One, which integrates AirWatch and Horizon View. No third-party patching tools needed. But customers are not adopting Horizon View quickly enough. This Adaptiva relationship is AirWatch's reaction to the slow adoption of Horizon View."

AirWatch UEM with Adaptiva is slated to be available sometime during the first half of 2017, Kunduri said. The solution will be available through VMware, but licensing details have yet to be finalized, he said.

Part of the sales effort will be through indirect sales channels, including telcos, managed service providers, and licensing solution partners, Kunduri said. However, he said, the channel mix has yet to be determined.