VMworld 2014 Day Two: End-User Computing, Ice Bucket Challenge

VMware (VMW) took a step back from the theatrical effects at VMworld 2014 on Tuesday to give its End-User Computing division the spotlight, with the hopes of pushing the right vision to more than 22,000 customers in attendance.

VMware CTO Ben Fathi and Software-Defined Data Center Division Executive Vice President Raghu Rahuram stole show by providing VMware’s approach to end user computing and how VMware’s strategy for the software-defined data center tackles end user computing topics such as mobility, content management and desktop virtualization.

They also had a little too much fun with Photoshop, but I digress. For those of you who were here—or were watching online—you know what I’m talking about. (None of us will ever look at Batman and Robin the same way again.)

Bonus: VMware End-User Computing Executive Vice President and General Manager Sanjay Poonen challenged Pat Gelsinger, the virtualization company’s CEO, to the Ice Bucket Challenge. Will Gelsinger accept or will Poonen get fired? Stay tuned.

Just in case you missed today’s general session, here’s a quick recap of what was announced, along with other noteworthy tidbits:

Partnership alert No. 1: VMware, NVIDIA (NVDA) and Google (GOOG). The three tech giants joined forces to “deliver high-performance virtual desktops and workstation-class graphics to Google Chromebooks” by leveraging VMware Blast Performance and NVIDIA GRID vGPU technology. They believe the joint effort will expand hardware options for high-performance virtual desktops and provide customers with choice.

Partnership alert No. 2: VMware and SAP (SAP). When this mobile app delivery partnership was announced, there was little to no reaction from attendees. In fact, when asked about leveraging SAP, attendees went quiet. (But maybe those in the room didn’t know if Poonan wanted them to raise a hand or voice an opinion—we may never know.)

The newly expanded partnership integrates mobile place from the SAP Mobile Secure portfolio with AirWatch by VMware solutions to enable customers to leverage the AirWatch by VMware platform with SAP mobile apps built using SAP Mobile Platform.

VMware Workspace Suite, a new integrated platform for managing applications, data and devices. VMware said the new integrated platform combines AirWatch mobile and content management with VMware Horizon to provide IT with a more comprehensive platform and give end users a unified experience.

“VMware Workspace Suite represents the culmination of a great deal of hard work that has gone into a product we see as a major step toward our goal of providing end-users with simple and seamless access to all of their applications and information from any device,” VMware End-User Computing Product Marketing Vice President Erik Frieberg said in a company blog post this morning.

To be exact, Workspace Suite combines several products: VMware’s Horizon 6, AirWatch Mobility Management Suite, AirWatch Secure Content Locker and VMware Workspace Services.

“VMware Workspace Suite can help customers achieve the simplicity that both users and IT administrators are looking for,” Frieberg said.

For pricing, VMware suggests attendees contact VMware sales or a local reseller partner.

Enhancements and updates to desktop product portfolio. The VMware desktop portfolio now includes the addition of real-time application delivery with CloudVolumes, an application and data management company VMware acquired. It also includes the virtualization company’s newly formed partnership with Google (noted above).

Applications as a service with VMware Horizon Data is now also available. Additionally, VMware Horizon DaaS is expanding. It will become available at some point to global customers in the United Kingdom.

“The next generation of desktop virtualization technology needs to be built and inspired by the benefits of mobility and the cloud, where any application can be rapidly accessed or delivered from any cloud,” VMware End-User computing Desktop Products Senior Vice President and General Manager Sumit Dhawan said in a company blog post this morning.

Here’s a video in which Dhawan focuses on VMware’s vision for desktop innovation.

But not everybody agrees with VMware’s approach to end user computing. “The biggest thing I took away from today’s keynote was the stark difference between the approaches taken by Microsoft and VMware for enabling enterprise mobility,” Microsoft Enterprise Client and Mobility Corporate Vice President Brad Anderson said in a blog post, offering his unofficial (and biased) VMworld recap.

“Much of what VMware spoke about today revolved around improving their VDI capabilities on top of their virtualization platform,” he said. “This was pretty predictable since that’s right in VMware’s wheelhouse.”

What happened during day one of general session? VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger introduced several new solutions and product offerings to attendees and called on IT to work against the status quo.

The VAR Guy compiled a short list of some of the top stories coming out of VMworld on Monday from a variety of media outlets.

Keep checking back to The VAR Guy for updates, insights and rumors coming out of VMworld 2014. Have a tip? Email Senior Editor CJ Arlotta at cj.arlotta”at”penton.com.

Follow CJ Arlotta on Twitter @cjarlotta and Google+ for further updates on the story above — or if you just want to say hello.