Analyst firm Gartner has advised customers of Omnissa – the company spun out from VMware’s end-user compute business – that they need to take stock because the new org isn’t yet able to offer a strong roadmap.

That advice landed last Friday in a document titled “The Future of VMware’s EUC Products.” The authors, a quartet of Gartner analysts, recommend that users of the Workspace ONE application publication and device management platform, and the Horizon desktop virtualization range, need to conduct a risk assessment and create contingency plans.

The firm isn’t pessimistic about Omnissa’s prospects. Indeed, the advice notes that Omnissa’s owner – private equity outfit KKR – has declared an intention to expand research and development, and to pursue new strategic partnerships. KKR also has form investing in and expanding comparable products offered by Parallels (which is owned by Alludo, formerly Corel – also a KKR company).

But Gartner isn’t impressed by what Omnissa has so far said about its plans. In particular, an ambition to create AI-infused autonomous workspaces. In the analysts’ estimation, that plan “lacks detailed product roadmaps [that] infrastructure and operations leaders need.” Users are advised to press Omnissa for more detail to inform their planning process.

Another item of concern is licensing. Omnissa’s plans in that regard are unknown, but Gartner advised customers to “anticipate increased pricing and amended discounting structures.” If that happens, Omnissa won’t be alone in doing so: its direct rival Citrix has already changed licenses and now only sells big bundles.

Omnissa users may have further licensing issue to consider if they run its apps on VMware’s vSphere, vSAN and vCenter. Broadcom no longer sells those as standalone products. Omnissa is allowed to resell a combined license for them, but on condition they are used only for Horizon virtual desktops and applications. Gartner warns it’s unclear how long that arrangement will remain in place, and recommends Omnissa clients make sure they secure the appropriate entitlements.

Gartner therefore reckons users need a contingency plan that considers migration to a new vendor.

While alternatives are available, the analysts offered the following warning:

VMware by Broadcom’s breakup with its end-user compute products will enter a new phase next week, with cloudy service providers and customers both warned of imminent changes.

Service providers who offer the old VMware’s Horizon range as a service have the worst of it, with an e-mail advising them that they have two choices. One is to acquire licenses for VMware Cloud Foundation and fresh licenses for Horizon, a choice that won’t require architectural changes but will mean paying for Broadcom’s big software bundle that has come in for much criticism over its price.

The second option is acquiring licenses to VMware vSphere Foundation for VDI from a distributor and reselling them to clients. That path will require architectural changes.

It is understood that these options were announced in recent weeks on a conference call, and gave those impacted scant time to make a choice and/or change, but offered the chance to apply for an exception.

But a more recent communication from VMware by Broadcom advised that the systems used to manage exemptions will go offline from April 30th.

That deadline left cloudy Horizon hosts with not many few working days to get their affairs in order if they wished to continue their services.

Customers, meanwhile, were last Monday told that the sale of VMware’s end-user products to KKR will see a migration of portals through which they access customer service and training. From April 30th to May 6th, the customer connect portal used will be “limited or read-only. A learning portal will be offline entirely.

When then portals return, they’ll be branded “Omnissa” – the name that was tipped to be the new moniker for the end-user products.

VMware by Broadcom confirmed the name on Thursday, revealing that it “originated from a rigorous process that included our employees, customers, and partners”. Those folk were asked to describe end-user computing and the word Omnissa is the result.

Apparently, the word also has qualities including:

VMware’s end user compute products appear likely to be rebranded as Omnissa after being sold off.

Broadcom decided to sell VMware’s portfolio of desktop and application virtualization products after it acquired the biz, deeming them surplus to requirements. They were picked up by private equity operation KKR for around $4 billion.

The Omnissa name appeared in a VMware Knowledge Base article published on April 11 advising that as of May 6 users of the products will be able to access support services at customerconnect.omnissa.com.

VMware has previously sought to register a trademark for “Omnissa” and defined the term as describing “Computer services for delivering end user computing to personal computers, tablet computers, and mobile devices, namely delivering a remote working experience to individual members of an organization.”

A post establishing an Omnissa Subreddit – dedicated to the former VMware products – is another sign Omnissa is imminent.

KKR is presumably confident it will be able to land the trademark, despite the existence of Omnidirectional Space Situational Awareness – which uses the acronym OmniSSA.

The Knowledge Base article also reveals they’re about to embark on a tight deadline migration project at a very tricky time.

The article is titled “VMware Support Transition to Broadcom” and explains that at around 5:00PM Pacific Time on Tuesday, April 30, online tools allowing user registration, license management, account management, enrolment in learning courses, and “purchase or upgrade products” won’t be available.

The migration – which CRN reports will see VMware move from its own SAP system to Broadcom’s Oracle software – is scheduled to end “at approximately Sunday, May 5, 2024, at 7:30PM.”

VMware has advised that by Monday morning at 08:00, similar features and functionality will be available to VMware customers at support.broadcom.com.

The downtime happens to span the days on which Broadcom’s Q2 2024 concludes. The tech conglomerate will therefore want to be sure it has secured all the support revenue it planned before systems shut down – given the lack of any opportunity to purchase or upgrade products during the migration window.

The migration team is going to be under more than a little pressure to get this done in the tight window VMware has defined – a delay of even a few days could dent revenue.

Broadcom will also be under pressure to ensure its support experience delivers, as its strategy for VMware has been only to do deals that bundle products and support – an arrangement it insists will see customers realize more value, faster.