With the introduction of the new Oculus Quest headset, more people than ever are harnessing the power of Virtual Reality. With its power, portability, and price point, believers are jumping on the opportunity to bring VR into the training room.
With this newest hardware comes a new educational tool that will change the way that companies prepare new employees for on-the-job scenarios… and in record time, too! And with the announced ‘Oculus for Business,’ companies can feel more secure than ever that their trade secrets are equal parts safe and accessible.
But what is ‘Oculus for Business,' you ask? Let's dig in and demystify it a little bit!
For starters, Oculus hardware runs device-specific software, just like the apps on your phone. Where Apple devices use apps from the Apple App Store, and Android devices use apps from the Google Play Store, Oculus headsets have their own homebase for “experiences” (the VR equivalent of “apps”), known as the “Quest Store.” Currently, when developers create a new experience for the Oculus Quest, that experience is distributed through the Quest Store.
That makes for easily accessible experiences at your fingertips, which is great! It’s certainly great for companies who want to deploy training experiences across a wide network.
But what happens when the content of an experience contains sensitive information? Not all apps/experiences are suitable for public distribution with so little security for trade secrets. That’s where “Enterprise” licensing comes into play. Dependable security measures are in place to ensure that intellectual property stays private.
With Enterprise licensing, companies like Apple provide developers with the “keys” to software that does the grunt work of keeping applications up to date (and out of the app store at large).
VisionThree has been helping companies secure their intellectual property by using this approach for years with apps in the Apple App Store. We are able to use a secure web link that customers can use to download their apps. Our developers can control who has access to this link and/or protect it with a username and password, which provides additional layers of security.
In our view, our clients should have the same headache-free experience when dealing with their Virtual Reality content distribution. Sure, it’s great to protect intellectual property and sensitive information, and we do that. But we also want to provide the most worry-free experience to clients. The process doesn’t stop with creating the experience… deployment is just as important. So that’s why we’re keeping such a close eye on the Oculus Enterprise program.
Oculus has vaguely stated their enterprise distribution platform should launch in November of 2019. We’re in direct contact with them. With just a few short weeks to go, keep an eye on our Facebook and/or LinkedIn pages; we’ll pass along any more news or updates leading up to launch!