VMware Embraces The BYOD Revolution

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Downside
142
Market
140
Trefis
VMW: VMware logo
VMW
VMware

VMware (NYSE:VMW) has embraced the bring your own device (BYOD) movement as its employees have to use their own personal smartphones for work. This is not just a cost saving measure for the company and seems more like a company wide test to identify and solve the issues posed by a large scale BYOD implementation. [1] VMware competes with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) and Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) in the virtualization space.

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Bracing For A Post PC Era

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The virtualization environment is changing. VMware clearly expects the BYOD phenomenon to become a huge opportunity in the future. Though it started as a desktop virtualization company, it has quickly expanded to managing cloud infrastructure and applications. It is now setting itself up to enable access to enterprise data irrespective of the device used and it targeting mobile phones and tablets, a vision it calls End-User Computing.

BYOD Issues and VMware Solutions

The biggest problem with allowing sensitive company information to be accessed by personal mobiles is the security of the data. It has a solution named VMware Horizon Mobile Virtualization. With this solution it is possible to create a virtual mobile image, similar to a virtual desktop with access to confidential company information and keep IT control with the company to de-provision the feature quickly. This means a user can use a business instance to access business information and the usual phone features for personal information. [2]

Challenges To BYOD

Enterprise applications tend to be heavy and unwieldy and would unlikely run on a smartphone or tablet. This means the core features would need to be repackaged into light application or built from scratch to be accessible by mobile devices. This could lead to multiple issues such as version control, file sharing, interfacing with the legacy application apart from security. This is likely to drive up IT costs as well as security costs. The savings would come from the fact that the company is saving on the cost of mobile devices. Currently BYOD tends to be expensive as applications need to be deployed based on the OS of the device which involves multiple versions of the applications tailored to each device. This coupled with security such as an RSA key, a virtual private network and a whole host of other security measures. Finding a cost effective way to enable the BYOD revolution is the business opportunity that VMware is looking to target in the near future.

We have a $109 Trefis price estimate for VMware, which is slightly above the current market price.

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Notes:
  1. VMware Going ‘All In’ With BYOD, www.cio.in, May 11, 2012 []
  2. VMware Envisions Virtualization In Post-PC BYOD Era, www.cio.in, May 17, 2012 []