Security Connect 2021 – Today at Security Connect 2021, VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) announced its work with Zoom Video Communications, Inc. to enable a better and more secure collaboration experience for hybrid work environments. The effort delivers interoperability between the recently announced VMware Anywhere Workspace and the Zoom collaboration platform to further improve ease of use, application and network performance, and security.

A VMware commissioned research study showed that 61% of respondents consider remote work as a prerequisite, not a perk, and over 90% rely on their employers to provide them with the technology and tools they need to be successful at their jobs(1). And while last year gave remote work a dramatic boost, the future of work is dynamic, with a global workforce in distributed locations, working wherever, whenever, and however, they want.

The VMware Anywhere Workspace solution empowers today’s anywhere workforce by removing the friction that can exist between IT systems and employees. This creates better experiences and broader, more effective security. VMware Anywhere Workspace is available today and brings together the benefits of three innovative solutions – VMware Workspace ONE, VMware Carbon Black Cloud and VMware SASE. Through relationships with industry-leaders such as Zoom, VMware is delivering interoperable solutions with VMware Anywhere Workspace to better support a hybrid workforce.

“The way we work has changed forever. And now that companies have seen the benefits of remote work, they want to do more than just support it,” said Shankar Iyer, senior vice president and general manager, End-User Computing, VMware. “Employees now expect an identical experience for their collaboration and communications tools from any location. VMware is working with industry leaders such as Zoom to help shape the future of work with interoperable solutions that deliver an exceptional and more secure user experience – in the office, at home, or anywhere.”

“As companies begin to reopen their physical offices, an increasingly hybrid work model is very likely. As such, enterprises will have to plan for both scenarios – employees working remotely, and also many employees back in the office,” said Brendan Ittelson, Chief Technology Officer at Zoom. “The unified experience that VMware can provide for Zoom environments can help make employees more productive and IT more effective and efficient.”

VMware and Zoom Address Key Work from Anywhere Pain Points

Zoom’s video communications platform is very stable under most challenging network conditions. However, with distributed workforces, users and data can reside anywhere, connecting via the public Internet, from devices that may or may not be owned or managed by an organization. The combination of VMware Anywhere Workspace and Zoom can create stronger and more resilient organizations by helping them improve visibility, user experience and security:

Enhanced Visibility and Troubleshooting: by enabling greater insights into the networks and devices supporting Zoom users, VMware Anywhere Workspace makes IT more responsive and efficient. VMware Edge Network Intelligence works with Zoom via a downloadable application on the Zoom App Marketplace to proactively identify and remediate issues through full visibility into the Zoom end-user environment. Edge Network Intelligence can provide network insights from the device perspective, tracking the status of its wireless state, Internet stability, gateway connectivity, and other factors that can impact performance. With the power of AIOps, the IT team can get the visibility and full context they need to determine user experience baselines across the entire enterprise, location, device, the client OS used, and more—all automatically learned.

Optimized Experience: with support for a multi-modal employee experience common with a hybrid work environment, combining VMware Anywhere Workspace with Zoom gives users a great experience and consistent performance on any device, from any location, over any network. Zoom interoperability with VMware SD-WAN, part of the VMware SASE platform, better enables user experience by automatically identifying and prioritizing Zoom platform applications, improving network performance through unique Dynamic Multi Path Optimization (DMPO), and accelerating network traffic handoff to Zoom data centers. The optimized experience works even in Work from Home situations where there are many non-business applications and myriad smart home devices.

Improved Security: VMware Anywhere Workspace enables broader and more effective security for distributed organizations using Zoom. VMware Workspace ONE provides risk-based conditional access to corporate Zoom accounts and meetings via single sign on, with the option to implement multi-factor authentication integrated into Hub or from a 3rd party provider. VMware Carbon Black integrates with Workspace ONE to help stop malware, ransomware, and non-malware attacks, prevent attacks automatically both online and offline, block emerging, and never-before-seen attacks that other solutions may miss. VMware SASE Platform enables customers to better protect Zoom environments by consolidating secure access, Web Security, and threat prevention into a single cloud-delivered service. For organizations using virtual desktop infrastructure to improve data protection and more securely keep older devices in service longer, VMware Horizon provides an optimization pack for Zoom.

Additional Resources

• Register and watch Leading Change: Build Trust with the Anywhere Workspace, a virtual event.
• Maximize Performance and Security for Zoom environments with VMware
• VMware Edge Network Intelligence is now available on the Zoom Marketplace

About VMware

VMware software powers the world’s complex digital infrastructure. The company’s cloud, app modernization, networking, security, and digital workspace offerings help customers deliver any application on any cloud across any device. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is committed to being a force for good, from its breakthrough technology innovations to its global impact. For more information, please visit https://www.vmware.com/company.html.

1-Vanson Bourne. “The New Remote Work Era: Trends in the Distributed Workforce.” September 2020, n=5700.

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