VMware EUC - a new beginning named Omnissa!

The acquisition of VMware by Broadcom has been a wild ride! The EUC transformation to a standalone company called Omnissa marks a significant milestone for its users and the broader tech community. So I felt I should give my honest and personal opinion on what is changing and how I feel about it. This is my personal opinion and not affiliated with anyone or any organization.

So maybe a quick who am I, I’m Jens, and I have been in the IT industry for more than 10 years. I was originally a Citrix consultant but have grown towards being a full-time VMware SDDC and EUC architect and consultant. I’m currently working as a freelancer for one of the major VMware (by Broadcom) Master Services Competency partners here in Belgium. With a focus on EUC and data centers. Besides work, Community is also something extremely important to me, and that is why I’m keeping this blog to help other people understand what is happening within the EUC space. So from this blog post perspective, I will be writing as a VMware vExpert, an EUC Expert, and a VMUG leader, where I will try to give an unbiased opinion on these changes.

The Birth of Omnissa

Omnissa’s journey began when Broadcom decided to originally buy VMware. With the completion of the acquisition in November 2023, it was uncertain which products / BUs would be kept.
Broadcom clearly is and was a hardware-centric player with a focus on enterprise software and Fortune 500 customers. How would EUC fit into this?

Well a couple of weeks later, Broadcom announced that it would divest the End-User Computing (EUC) division. Here, a private equity firm called KKR acquired the EUC business and would later be announced as Omnissa. As a standalone entity, Omnissa is fully independent of Broadcom and has the traction to innovate and enhance the digital experiences it provides to its users. This move reflects a strategic realignment, focusing on delivering advanced digital workspace solutions to Omnissa’s existing but also new customers.

The new Omnissa Site is already live, and is fully rebranded! Go take a look: https://www.omnissa.com/

So how do I feel?

So as an EUC expert (formally known as VMware vExpert EUC subprogram), I have the chance to be in contact with a lot of members of the EUC Community and the overall consensus on the Omnissa acquisition was rather positive!
This for me is similar, I see a bright future ahead! EUC is no longer one of the many Business Units under VMware but now has dedicated resources in time and material to accelerate its R&D. Benefitting everyone and hopefully increasing its global footprint as one of the best EUC solutions on the market.
Of course, a question that still floats around my head is what about the financial part? Omnissa licensing and VMware by Broadcom licensing (previously known as vSphere for Desktop licenses)?
As Horizon currently is a co-engineered solution with vSphere, the need for vSphere licenses is of course obvious. I hope that we will see some more hypervisor support in the future.

Custom VMware by Broadcom Licensing!

Well recently announced Omnissa and Broadcom have come to an agreement that Horizon will remain to include the necessary vSphere licenses. The official statement is:

Omnissa and Broadcom have agreed that EUC can continue to sell the “combined offering” versions of Horizon SaaS and Horizon Term SKUs with VVF for VDI, including Named User and Concurrent User license metrics and 1, 3, and 5-year terms.

This is in my opinion great news as this reassures customers that their mission-critical services dependent on Horizon will not be impacted by the split between Omnissa and Broadcom.
You can find the official statement on the Omnissa Knowledge Base: https://kb.omnissa.com/s/article/14804

Work in progress

With the divesture, just past us, it is clear that we aren’t there yet in terms of the functionality of the Omnissa website and other services.

I know the teams behind this are working hard to get to a fully operational state as soon as possible. Nevertheless, all essential services are up and running. So you are most likely good to go! Here is a list of links to some essential Omnissa services:

Main website: https://www.omnissa.com/
Support page: https://customerconnect.omnissa.com/support
License page: https://customerconnect.omnissa.com/downloads/#my_products
Learning portal: https://learning.omnissa.com/learn
Knowledge Base: https://kb.omnissa.com/s/
Techzone portal: https://techzone.omnissa.com/
Cloud portal: https://connect.omnissa.com/

On the topic of certification, nothing is currently known about how this will evolve. Your existing certifications are still present within the Broadcom transcript.
I’m curious if they will start from fresh and design an entirely new

Conclusion

I’m excited for the upcoming year!
Being an independent company allows Omnissa to elevate its R&D and once more focus on only its core focus End-User Computing. This will not only benefit the company itself but the overall EUC community as it will increase the overall competitiveness and features. This market has been deemed dying for the last 5 years but continues to grow and flourish…

So with Omissa being here and now, I’m more than stoked to see what it will be within 12 months from now! So can we maybe say that this could be the…