VMware Combines Work, Personal Lives On Single Mobile Device
In VMware's view of the future, employees won't be forced to lug around multiple devices in order to preserve the security of corporate data. Horizon Mobile uses virtualization to create a secure and isolated phone-within-a-phone which walls off a user's mobile workspace from their personal space, Raj Mallempati, VMware's director of product marketing for Enterprise Desktop Solutions, said Horizon Mobile, said in an interview at VMWorld 2011.
Horizon Mobile also includes advanced management features that gives IT the ability to remotely provision and de-provision devices as needed.
"Companies are trying to figure out how to take control over mobile devices and allow people to work in a way that IT can support," Mallempati said. "The goal of Horizon Mobile is to not have to carry two phones and to be able to separate personal from work. "
Horizon Mobile is based on VMware's Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP), which VMware showed off at the Mobile World Congress in February through an Android partnership with LG.
Samsung Tuesday said it's also partnering with VMware on Horizon Mobile, and Mallempati said VMware expects other mobile OEMS to join in the coming months.
In May VMware launched Horizon App Manager, which handles application management and single sign-on for SaaS applications, and Horizon Mobile adds mobile applications to the mix. Horizon App Manager is now becoming a management framework, Mallempati said.
"This is bringing MVP into the Horizon management construct and extending Horizon out to mobile devices," Mallempati said.
VMware CEO Paul Maritz told CRN in July that MVP was "still very much an experiment."
"We're going through trials to see how people react to it. We need to see how users are going to react to this concept of having two phones in one phone, and how enterprises will like it," Maritz said in a July interview.
"You want to allow users to get access to all the great stuff that's coming out of the consumer world and still maintain a secure and compliant environment. It's going to require different approaches, and MVP is an experiment to learn if this is one of the ways we can try and square that circle."
Horizon Mobile is available now in the U.S. and to select early access customers in other regions. VMware Horizon Application Manager is priced starting at $30 per user/per year for SaaS and cloud application management, and management of ThinApp entitlements is expected later this year.