Enterprise PCs are unreliable, unpatched, and unloved compared to Macs

End-user compute vendor Omnissa, the company formed by the spin-out of VMware’s virtual desktops, applications, and device management biz, has dug into the telemetry it collects from customers and painted a picture of the world’s enterprise hardware fleet – and the news is better for Google and Apple than it is for Microsoft. Omnissa’s State of Digital Workspace report suffers from the same problem as all research published by vendors in that its authors conclude its findings demonstrate many fine reasons reason why you should consider the company’s products. We’ll ignore that and consider some other findings instead, such as data that shows users of Apple devices update software faster than owners of other machines. Omnissa found macOS devices are updated 1.5 times faster than Windows hardware, while iOS machines get updated 8.1 times faster than Android. “OS update controls for macOS are centralized, less obstructive, and more reliable than the bifurcated Windows Server Update Services (on-premises) and Windows Update Client Policies (cloud) approach for Windows patching,” the company opined. The report also found “industries that house the most sensitive data are ironically the furthest behind in basic OS patching” and that “Critical industries like healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and retail and wholesale consistently let their operating systems languish.” Healthcare, pharmaceutical, and retail outfits are the worst offenders. Omnissa also assessed the age of endpoints it manages, and found 90 percent of Windows machines in its care are under three years old, and just two percent make it into a sixth year of operation. By contrast, 65 percent of Macs are less than three years old, and 11.5 percent are in use six years after purchase. The company also considered reliability and found Windows users experience 3.1 times more forced shutdowns than Mac owners, 2.2 times more app crashes, and 7.5 times more app hangs. Plenty of the Macs Omnissa can see still run Intel processors, and Chipzilla provided the processor in 93 percent of PCs. AMD had just six percent of the observable fleet, leaving a sole percentage point of market share to the likes of Qualcomm. Omnissa thinks the strong presence of Apple silicon in the corporate fleets it observes means the House of the Snapdragon may yet claim a throne. “The rapid adoption of Apple silicon seems to indicate a strong enterprise appetite for ARM-based architecture,” the report states, because buyers appreciate better performance-per-watt. Omnissa brings VDI-style app packaging to physical PCs Omnissa, VMware’s old end-user outfit, moves to manage servers and … Apple Watches? Gartner warns Omnissa – formerly VMware's end-user compute biz – represents new risks Omnissa, VMware's old end-user biz, emerges with promise of 'AI-infused autonomous workspace' The research also spotted 36 percent year over year growth in virtual desktops and concludes that’s “a likely indicator of organizations pivoting to VDI driven by Windows 10 end-of-life and the need for newer OS-ready hardware.” The report did have some welcome news for Microsoft, in the form of growing market share for its Edge browser which Omnissa found accounted for 41 percent of browser use, just two points behind Google’s Chrome. Research firm StatCounter’s analysis of a far larger user population suggests Chrome has 68.9 percent market share, ahead of Edge’s 5.4 percent. Apple’s Safari doesn’t rate a mention in Omnissa’s report, which found “Other” browsers enjoy 16 percent share and a statistically significant presence for emerging enterprise browsers Island and Talon. “The presence of niche enterprise browsers suggests IT is attempting to regain control over this ‘last mile’ of data presentation, moving security controls from the device level to the browser level,” Omnissa suggested. Another finding is that government buyers can move markets. Omnissa found 99 percent growth in adoption of desktop computers among body politic buyers, and suggested much of the 988 percent year-on-year growth in the presence of Google’s Pixel handsets in its data to the US Department of Defense Information Network’s inclusion of the machines on its Approved Products List (APL). The report concludes that bad things can happen if you don’t understand what’s going on with your hardware fleet, or it’s hard to manage, so you should spend money with someone to avoid finding yourself in that situation. And guess who sells stuff that can help? ®