Identity-defined and managed workspaces overcome the hurdles of typical identification-as-a-service and mobile application management and improve the adoption of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives, says virtual machine multinational VMware desktop products and end-user computing VP Dave Grant.

The platform, called VMware Workspace One, uses the company’s well-known AirWatch 8.4 and Identity Manager systems and is designed to protect data inside applications without requiring device management, meeting the “consumer simple, enterprise secure” design criteria.

Workspace One brings together identity, device management and application delivery on a single integrated platform to support business mobility initiatives for companies transitioning their legacy infrastructure to compete in the mobile-cloud era, he notes.

“The new capabilities of VMware Workspace One can help improve companywide security and take control of managed or unmanaged devices as companies adopt software-as-a-service and mobile applications, which are critical for business transformation, but can introduce significant risks.”

The new VMware Verify application, a built-in two-factor authentication solution, uses personally owned smartphones and tablets as authentication tokens. When logging into corporate applications from any device, users simply tap on the “verify” notification on their device for immediate authentication.

However, for unmanaged devices, the platform harnesses native operating-system-level data protection without the need for traditional mobile device management profiles.

“By downloading VMware Workspace One and entering a corporate email address, end-users automatically receive single sign-on access to any corporate Web, native, mobile or Windows application. To access more sensitive applications, end-users can activate Workspace Services to unlock native operating system data protection.

“The purpose of activating Workspace Services is to inherently protect user privacy and it does not allow the information technology department to track or report sensitive BYOD information like GPS location, device restrictions and personal applications.”

Further, for corporate-owned devices, companies can build on the managed workspace with the VMware Workspace One Unified Endpoint Management, which uses the VMware AirWatch enterprise mobility management technology for configuration, advanced conditional access policies, device auditing, automated remediation and life-cycle management.

The updates to the platform are designed to help streamline workflows, assist administrators and users in locating lost devices, as well as enable users to share devices without losing personalisation and allow for application notification controls.

For streamlined deployment, VMware AirWatch 8.4 allows for the delivery of a tailored education section in the console, which enables school systems to manage learners, teachers, classes and device carts in the unique way required by education systems.

The new capabilities of the platform are designed to cover the full spectrum of employee and device enablement options – from completely unmanaged, browser-based on-boarding of end-users using personal devices to allowing for fully managed corporate devices, concludes Grant.