Jamf After Dark: Broadcom acquires VMware. What it means for Workspace One customers?

Broadcom acquisition wrap-up

Garbis kicks off the conversation with Batista regarding Broadcom acquiring VMware on November 22, 2023. According to the latter, the primary driver for the acquisition was VMware’s “cloud and virtualization software”. Despite adding Workspace One (WS1) and Carbon Black (CB) IPs as part of the purchase, Broadcom’s main focus does not appear to be on consumer solutions, leaving customers of both WS1 end-user computing (EUC) and CB searching for alternatives for their EUC and endpoint security needs.

VMware-partner community impact

In negotiations with the partner community that occurred during the sale, Broadcom made it clear that “any on-prem sales were done.”, according to Batista. A decision that impacts end users by forcibly moving them to the cloud-based model, which falls in line with Broadcom’s business model. Further muddying partnership waters, Broadcom also made a decision earlier on to suspend certain channel partnerships in place with VMware, opting to take its time to “reevaluate what they want that partnership to look like or maybe not look like at all.” This has led to a trickle effect, not only impacting partners themselves looking to expand their offerings by forming new partnerships with other solutions providers since they can’t depend on the level of focus Broadcom is providing them at the moment.

What are Workspace One customers to do?

Switching gears a bit, Rabbitt introduces Needham by asking him to summarize his role at Jamf, to which he responds,“Moving MDMs can be hard. We’ve invested a lot of time and energy into making sure that’s going to be as easy a process as possible.” Despite the similarities in using management commands for managing devices in bulk, Needham explains that the challenge for many organizations moving MDM solutions providers is the requirement that administrators effectively learn a new software package. The difference between their previous solution and the new one — that is the true learning curve.

From a practical element, the physical movement from one MDM to the other comes down to the management profile, explains Needham, who likened it to the Highlander saga, since “there can only be one.” This begs the question, “How do we get the old MDM profile off and still ensure that we’re going to have the workflow in place to get the new MDM profile onto the device?” All this while avoiding leaving devices in an unmanaged state, unsecured or relying on employees to physically follow directions that may or may not be completed successfully. As Needham explains, this is what’s at the crux of Jamf’s Migrations Services, “having security solutions installed and in place, and managed and reporting on them…having workflows that will ensure that you get visibility” as part of a comprehensive and successful migration solution.

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