Today I want to write a little bit about the future Workplace, the trends I see in the Market and at Customers.

The future Workplace is currently one of hottest topics in the Market. In this Part 1, I focusing on the possibilities with regards to the mobile World.

Yesterday, 21st of February Samsung announced the Galaxy Fold, a Device which combines the capabilities of a Smartphone and a Tablet. This will offer a lot of flexibility if you look how Users work today or think about their future Workplace expectations. Permanent online, access from everywhere, from every Device, to everything.

The Samsung Device is a good example for the strategy of future Workplaces and that kind of working style. Simple reason, most of the people has a Smartphone and access the resources they need from that Device. But if you want to edit some documents or use a remote session for instance, you want to do so from this Device type? In that certain case, especially of the remote session, the size of the Smartphone Display is not really suitable, right. That is where such a Device is really useful, because you have a “small” Smartphone for the general use in case of Calls, reading emails etc. but the same Device you can use as a Tablet and the Display is doubled. Is that enough for a remote session? Sure it is, trust me ;-).

With that, the Users gets a lot of flexibility and the possibilities will grow immense. Take a look at the Device from Samsung and think about it in the back of your head which possibilities you see.

 

Another good point I see is that the Users will switch more and more from the 2 Device usage to one Device. Yes, you don´t need to take care of two Devices (Updates, Apps, Access, Security etc.) only for one. But what is about the usage breakdown from private and Business?

1. Some Users don´t want to be reachable after the Office hours or some Companies deny it because of the work-life-balance

2. Another really important point is the security in case of content for instance.

All that points creates a lot of headache for several Companies but for the Users as well.

Keep cool, there is a solution in the Market for near all use cases. But let us take it, point per point.

 

What´s about the Devices?

From the Device perspective, several Devices in the Market offering different capabilities for a solution. One thing you personally have to think about is, which kind of approach you want or allow to use. It depends on the use case, Company policies or personal preference.

 

BYOD or COPE?

Two general “descriptions” you surely have heard about, BYOD and COPE Devices. What does that means?

BYOD (Bring your Own Device) means the Company allow you to use your private Device which you will bring with you.

In case of COPE (Corporate owned personally enabled) Devices is a little but important difference. The important part is, that the Devices will bought by the Company but the Users are allowed to use it private as well. The first thought you will have is, ok, but in the BYOD case I can use it private as well. That is totally right, but there is one important difference especially from a Company perspective. In the COPE Device case, the Company decides which kind of Device they will buy and use. Why is that important? Well, a short example…

 

The Company perspective

You are the Head of IT and your CEO take the decision for a mobile strategy. So, you as the Head of IT has to make sure that all Employees get a mobile phone which have to be secure, managed and has access to the resources they need. Additionally you have to empower the Employees to do their work and get the Apps they need. Every User has a different use case because of his role or working style. At the End all the stuff have to be secure!

Now, take a while and think about the difference of BYOD and COPE…

 

To make a decision of the strategy in case of the Devices, I will give you some thoughts.

Here is the important difference, you as the Head of IT has not only to make sure the Employees gets the Device, will be online and can access the resources they need. You have to make sure that all Devices are secure (Updates, Firmware, OS Version etc.) as well and have to handle the administration. If you choose the BYOD strategy, in the worst case, every Employee choose another Device, with another OS Version etc. The administrative amount is insane!

If you choose the COPE Device strategy, you as the Company choose the kind of Device from the OS perspective as well as from a Vendor perspective. 

To give the Employees a little flexibility some Companies gives a little choice for the kind and Vendor of the Device you want to use.

The Employee has the choice between maybe two Devices like a Samsung Galaxy and an Apple iPhone. And here is the point.

1. In the example of an Apple iPhone, the series of the Xr / Xs / Xs Max have a really cool option of a Dual SIM (Nano‑SIM and eSIM).

2. In the example of a Samsung Android Device you have an additionally  pretty cool option as well, Android Enterprise. In that case will be created a separate area (Container) on the Device for Business related things like Apps, configuration etc. That is pretty cool because from the administration perspective you can configure and influence this Container totally independent from the private space. The IT can make sure your Device is under the control of the IT in case of the Business related part and fulfil the compliance they want to have. But you can use it personally and will be not restricted by IT in that space. Not only the Container itself is secure. You can configure the interaction and communication from out of the Container and to it as well. Is that cool?!

So, a combination of both is possible. A win, win case for the Company and the Employee. I as an Employee can choose such a Device and use it for both, private and Business. I have the one Device usage I want and the Company has fewer administrative amount because they can focus on only two Vendors and kind of Devices.

 

The Employee / User perspective

In the case of such an iPhone, the cool thing is, you can configure which stuff will be used by the private card or the Business card. That´s important if you maybe have to take care on the data usage or the contract is limited to several Countries for phone calls in case of the costs.

An additional point if we come back to the mentioned topic of work-life-balance, you can switch off the Company card after the Office hours or on vacation and you will not disturbed by Business related notifications. 

 

Now we take a look on the “other side”, you choose the Android Device.

In that case you have really good possibilities if you use Android Enterprise. With that solution you can create a separate area on your Device (Container) for the Business content. Not only for content even for Apps. The big advantage is that you can switch it off and all Business related stuff will be switched off during that time. After your vacation you can switch it on and use it as usual.

I hope I could help one or the other a bit with my thoughts and insights.

I will write down in the next parts a bit more around the possibilities you will get with VMware Workspace ONE as a solution for the future Workplace. In that I will focus on Identity, Windows 10 and Horizon in conjunction with Application delivery and Profile Management.