Telecommunications giant Verizon Enterprise Solutions and virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions provider VMware announced an expansion of their strategic relationship to include mobile security and enterprise mobility management solutions.
The relationship is designed to offer certain opportunities for clients, including solutions that offer a complete enterprise mobility management platform combined with end point security and telecom analytics and desktop virtualization, image management and bring-your-own-PC solutions.
Other benefits include content collaboration solutions that offer simplicity for users and security for IT professionals.
Verizon and VMware said these solutions would be designed to allow employees to access all of their personal and corporate applications and information securely across any device, virtually anywhere at any time.
The two companies also said they aim to enable businesses to run more effectively by providing expanded device choice and flexibility.
“As enterprises respond to changing employee demographics and expectations, we continue to build out our mobile device management portfolio to offer customers choices that drive business efficiency and employee engagement,” John Harrobin, chief marketing officer for Verizon Enterprise Solutions, said in a statement. “Our relationship with VMware brings advanced enterprise mobility solutions to organizations across a number of sectors.”
Verizon will now provide its enterprise clients in the United States greater choice by offering the AirWatch by VMware Enterprise Mobility Management Platform as part of Verizon’s mobile device management portfolio for on-premise deployments.
“Verizon and VMware have a rich history, and we look forward to working even more closely together to bring end-user computing solutions to customers,” Sanjay Poonen, executive vice president and general manager of end-user computing for VMware, said in a statement. “From desktop to laptop to tablet to phone to the Internet of things, VMware brings the software solutions that allow end-users’ device, apps and content to be securely managed, and served up as if in an extended pane of glass, or virtual workspace. We look forward to bringing this vision to the market with a strong industry leader like Verizon.”
At the start of the year, VMware acquired enterprise mobile management and security provider AirWatch for $1.54 billion in cash and installment payments. AirWatch brought to VMware more than 10,000 customers globally and about 1,600 employees in nine offices worldwide.
Privately held AirWatch, headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., markets enterprise software packages that handle management of devices, applications and mobile content.
The company competes in the same mobile device management (MDM) market with Citrix Systems (which makes Xenprise), SAP Sybase, Perimeter, IBM/Fiberlink, Oracle/Bitzer, Continuum, Good Technology and MobileIron.