We used AirWatch or VMware Workspace ONE to protect mobile devices on a large scale. They were known for being focused on mobile, more than desktops. They may not be as good on desktops, but the main use case is to monitor and manage mobile endpoints, e.g. wireless devices such as tablets and phones. AirWatch became well known for being really good at monitoring and managing mobile endpoints.
VMware Workspace ONE isn't that good with patching and fixing, especially when compared to BigFix. This is an area for improvement. BigFix did a really good job in terms of patching and fixing, but it had a lot to do with IBM's integration to virtually every other platform out there. That integration really helped from just a server patching and endpoint management situation.
They (IBM) are very good at doing discovery, which is basically surveying the endpoint asset and finding out what vulnerability was there. It might be you're running Windows 10.647, and there are known vulnerabilities below that, so the prioritization of that patching became easy to create rules for, and make sure that you patched all devices with that current OS expeditiously.
Training for VMware Workspace ONE could also be improved, especially when compared to HCL who did a good job, either remote or self-paced.
VMware support has always been good, even if they became a really large company. They have what I call "Amazonitus", e.g. there's a lot of level two triage or level one triage, but you definitely get a response back, though a lot of people have moved away towards self-service. The goal is never to take a phone call if they don't have to, which I understand.
Their tech support is still rock solid on both sides, but would really depend on the kind of problem you have.
The setup for VMware Workspace ONE is good, e.g. there are no complexities, and they all have good discovery now. You plug them in, make sure the nodes are aligned on the network, then you can get to them. The setup process for VMware Workspace ONE and one of its competitors IBM, is very good. They've both done a very good job of it.
I was able to evaluate HCL (BigFix), Microsoft, Blackberry, and Ivanti.
AirWatch evolved into VMware Workspace ONE, so it's the same product. AirWatch was more of a competitor of mobile device management and security, so they weren't as good in patching and fixing.
There's another type of solution now that we call unified endpoint management (UEM), and that's a whole new category. I actually have quadrants in that. I know that AirWatch, even when they were acquired by VMware, e.g. it's now VMware Workspace ONE, was still highly rated. HCL is still highly rated. Microsoft was also good. Ironically, another company that was very good for mobile device management and one of the security companies out there is BlackBerry. They're still alive.
I've worked on most of the UEM solutions, including VMware Workspace ONE. For Blackberry, we haven't touched that lately. We have touched BigFix. I do have customers that are still running BlackBerry Spark®. I know even Google is trying to get in the game. Ivanti is also another UEM solution we've been dealing with. There are a number of different ones, e.g. even IBM has moved their MaaS360® platform to try to do unified endpoint management now.
The advice I'd like to give to others looking into implementing VMware Workspace ONE, is for them not to have any qualms about implementing it. Things are quick to set up, even if our team does some very hardcore security things, e.g. identity and access management, all kinds of threat landscape stuff, attack surface monitoring and modeling, etc. VMware Workspace ONE is one of the easier technologies that can be implemented for what we do, so I'm recommending it to others.
In terms of rating VMware Workspace ONE, there are a lot of "mini-categories", so they don't do some of the things I was talking about, or they're just newer into it. If I look at unified endpoint management, e.g. mobile, desktop, and everything combined, I would probably put BigFix high up there. For mobile, I would put VMware Workspace ONE high up there along with some others. Some of the SaaS ones, e.g. Tanium, do a good job, too. BlackBerry actually does a really good job with unified endpoint management, too. They just don't have billions of their devices out there, but in terms of managing their own devices, they were really the best in the early days, with a very secure platform.
HCL for UEM could be rated the best. For mobile, VMware Workspace ONE would rate the best, because they were really focused on that from the very beginning. They led the way, even if in that space you'll see 500 competitors, with people jumping up and jumping down, and constantly moving. VMware Workspace ONE in the mobile space has been very sustained in terms of how they've been rated and how they've grown over time. They owned the market with four or five of these solutions, and they were able to maintain the lead.
I could rate VMware Workspace ONE eight out of ten, but it would still depend on the use cases. BigFix is better for unified endpoint management, the ability to patch all assets, etc. VMware, on the other hand, is more focused on mobile. VMware being an infrastructure company and everybody inexpensively spinning up VMs all over the place: they've tried to pull that side a little more toward the infrastructure side, desktops, and PCs, and even on the networks, but both of them have grown tremendously.
In the last two or three years, for obvious reasons, with all the resiliency planning we do now for mobile workforces, it's really important for them to develop new capabilities, which I think they have, but this has been really good for their development. They've seen everything at this point.
