Switch from VPP to Public iOS Apps?

[syarbrou]

We have been doing everything thru VPP and have been dealing with the fact that our users are seeing about a 3 minute delay when they go in the legacy browser based app store and click to install an app, until the popup comes up on their phones asking to accept the install.  Thru public it's right away.  So seems we may have a network issue or something with the time it takes to submit the install request with the time it takes to get the license assigned or routing traffic.  That said, does anyone know if there is a way to switch midstream for BYO devices from VPP to Public without breaking anything?

Also assume with Public they would have to click an additional button the allow us to take ownership of it so we can remove the app should they leave the company?

Thanks.

Steve

[chengtmskcc]

Hi Steve,

I'm actually looking to do the other way around since VPP apps give us full control of both the licenses and version control.

I agree the Legacy app catalog is far from perfect. Have you considered enabling the new Intelligent App Catalog to see if it makes any difference before switching back to public apps? I shared my setup via this blog post.

https://thomascheng.net/2020/07/17/evolve-from-legacy-app-catalog-as-web-clip-to-hub-catalog-within-...

And you are right that with public apps, there's a risk the app and corporate data will not get removed if the users do not accept management.

I doubt there is zero impact on the users if you are to switch from VPP back to public apps.

Best,

Tom

[syarbrou]

Thanks for the reply Tom and nice site.  We have a VMware resource working with us for a month and he feels Intelligent Hub won't help.  Also to do it we need to setup Access which I'm not hot to do as for our setup doesn't really buy us much.  We see with Public apps the popup to install the apps happens right away on the phone.  With VPP it's like 2 - 3 minutes so I personally believe there is a lag somewhere but no one can explain to me ALL the communications that are happening and troubleshoot where it's getting hung up.  All I know is although I want to stick with VPP I am about to enroll thousands of clinicians and beyond the complains there are to many steps to enroll, apps not installing right away is really a pain point.  I can also say that if I click install, then refresh the legacy app store, then click install again, USUALLY the pop-up to accept the install happens right away. 

Steve

[chengtmskcc]

Understood. Have you escalated this to a SME or your account manager?

If I recall correctly, I did come across the same issue with VPP apps which fortunately went away. We are a SaaS customer so we have less control of the environment, but the technology behind is the same for the VPP app push.

[ThomasBeckerTho]

Can't answer your question but we are on-prem with VPP and also experiencing times between 30sec and 3min for the download to start.

Either we have the same network issue or its just normal behavior.

We just recently upgraded from 18.10 to 20.05 but it made no difference regarding these times.

[chengtmskcc]

It's about the same for me and the duration heavily depends on the WiFi strength in my institution.

[rterakedis]

hey syarbrou​ - Just wanted to clarify, while Hub services co-exist with an Access tenant, they do not both need to be set up.   If you look in the console (Getting Started > Workspace ONE > Intelligent Hub), you can either enter credentials for an access tenant you are already assigned (even if it has yet to be configured), or you can request a new access tenant if you were never provided one.   In either case, you configure the hub settings separately from Access.

That said, there are some features of Hub that require access integration --> Unified App Catalog (Saas/Horizon/Mobile), People Search, and Enhanced Notifications.