In the past months I’ve spent some time to learn, focus and test a couple of VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) devices in regards to usage in an Enterprise context. Primarily, this means getting these devices under control with Workspace ONE UEM and provide a convenient Launcher application for Enterprise Content with the Workspace ONE XR Hub.
Certainly, XR (Extended Reality) in the Enterprise is a journey. Devices evolve, technologies evolve and most important use cases and usage in large and small scale Enterprises is more and more developing. I talked to many customers and prospects at Conferences, Roundtables, virtual Events or as part of my role as Solution Engineer at VMware, I’ve never met one customer who said, that AR/VR is not a topic for them.
It’s our mission to lift AR/VR in the Enterprise to the next level, making usage of immersive devices Enterprise ready. Read in my Blog posts about my experience and how things have matured from early Beta to GA and are continuing to grow to the next releases.
AR/VR Posts
XR December Updates Pt. 1 – XR Hub 23.11
The ultra-fast journey around driving VR in the Enterprise continues. Just days before Christmas there were two major new releases:
- Workspace ONE XR Hub 23.11
Steps on how to integrate XR Hub with WS1 Intelligence - SimpleXR 23.11 (known as ConQuest)
In addition I had the opportunity to play around with Meta Quest for Business. Let’s start with XR Hub 23.11.
Meta Quest 3 + ConQuest 2310 + Workspace ONE UEM = LOVE
Developing and launching a product from the idea to General Availability (GA) is always a journey which takes time. This was no different for the Workspace ONE XR Hub. For me the journey started in early 2022 when I had a customer asking for “how can I get VR devices under control and management in regards to staging and security restrictions”. My personal journey with this device form factor started – first with understanding that the XR Hub comes on top of a device as managed App where the device is already managed with the Intelligent Hub, second with understanding the difference between the AR/VR/XR terminology. XR Hub was in very early Beta phase at the time and is now (May 2023) finally GA.
Enrolling a Realwear HMT-1 in Workspace ONE UEM
While I was writing in the past a couple of posts about enrolling and managing Virtual Reality (VR) devices like the Meta Quest 2, Pico Neo 3 Pro and HTC Vive Focus, there are other device types commonly used in the industry leveraging AR – Augmented or Assisted Reality. Thanks to a loaner device from Realwear, I was able to test one of those devices recently: The Realwear HMT-1.
Workspace ONE XR Hub 22.11 Beta – Managed Configurations
The journey of the XR Hub from early Beta to General Availability continues… Recently, Workspace ONE XR Hub 22.11 Beta was launched, which is the first Release Candidate. As with every new release, there are a few bug fixes, but what makes this release special, is the following feature add: Managed App Configs.
Workspace ONE XR Management – Testing Oculus Quest 2 Enterprise Enablement
[UPDATE 30th June] Yesterday a new version of the Conquest Fling was launched. Exciting update as the new version now allows a Zero Touch Enrollment with the Intelligent Hub into Workspace ONE UEM. I was running a test earlier today and the basic steps remain the same in general, but within the Fling you can now pre-define Workspace ONE Enrollment information which simplifies the enrollment significantly.
On a different note, Quest released v41 of their OS. Tests were done with this version and I’ve not seen any significant impact on the enrollment itself. Last but not least, the new Beta version 0.75 of the XR Hub was provided last week with some great enhancements – more on this within the (pending) Blog post for the Pico Neo 3 Pro.
Meta Quest 2 – XR Hub 22.11 Beta – ConQuest 2.0 Fling
The Workspace ONE XR Hub is coming closer and closer to General Availability. Recently, Beta 22.11 was launched, which is also the first Release Candidate. The biggest and most exciting change is that deploying XR Hub is no longer requiring to deploy the XRHubClientConfig.json via a Provisioning Package. The App Settings can now easily be configured via Android Managed Configurations while assigning the App to devices with Workspace ONE UEM. I highlighted the details in my previous post.
The Workspace ONE VR Experience, Part3: Pico Neo3 Pro and XR Hub 0.75
No surprise, the development in the XR space is running ultra-fast. My last Blog post covering the Oculus Quest 2 is just a few weeks old but was updated already twice. Couple of the latest updates:
* Support of Zero Touch enrollment for Oculus (new Conquest version)
* Support of QR Code enrollment for HTC Vive Focus 3
* Oculus firmware 40, 41 and 42 launched
* XR Hub Beta 0.75 launched
I will cover some of the above in this post, but first I was able to test the Pico Neo 3 Pro.
Workspace ONE XR Hub – The Future of Work?
At the last VMworld (2021), VMware announced that it would support a range of VR/AR glasses in the future. A few days ago I had the opportunity to test HTC Vive Focus 3 VR glasses. At this point, thanks to HTC for providing the test unit.
Welcome to the anywhere workspace 