Omnissa launches Elara AI governance beta for enterprises

Omnissa has launched Elara, an AI governance product for enterprise IT teams, now available in beta.

Elara is designed to help IT and security teams assess and authorise actions before AI-driven or IT-led changes take effect. It works across Omnissa software and third-party systems, bringing together data on people, identities, devices, applications and AI tools.

The launch comes as companies face broader use of AI applications and autonomous software agents in corporate environments. Omnissa cited its own research showing unsanctioned AI tools on 75% of enterprise-managed devices, underscoring the scale of AI use outside formal approval processes.

Brian Link, Product Lead for Elara at Omnissa, said the product is intended to help customers manage that activity across separate systems.

"Enterprises are trying to enable AI without losing control of what is happening across their environments," Link said.

"That gets harder when every system has its own limited view of the world. Elara builds on the foundation Omnissa has established helping customers manage digital work across traditionally siloed systems. By bringing those signals together, Elara gives IT the context to apply the right guardrails and make better-informed decisions about what should happen next."

How it works

According to Omnissa, Elara sits above existing management and security tools rather than replacing them. The software connects systems organisations already use and applies policy and permission structures to determine whether a proposed action should proceed.

This approach addresses a growing problem for Chief Information Officers and Chief Information Security Officers as automated actions happen faster and reach across more systems. In many companies, existing authorisation tools govern only the systems they directly manage, leaving gaps when actions span several platforms or AI agents operate with broad access.

Functions included in the beta include tools to detect so-called shadow AI, govern access to AI models, control high-impact changes across enterprise systems and record decision trails for audit purposes. Elara can discover AI apps, large language models, agents and related tools running across an organisation, including software outside standard approved inventories.

The product also includes what Omnissa calls an AI Gateway, which can authorise model access, apply usage guardrails and track token consumption across different providers. The aim is to give companies a way to manage AI use across multiple model suppliers without adopting a single provider.

Control points

For operational changes, Elara evaluates actions against conflicts, freezes and dependencies before execution. Based on that analysis, the system can allow an action to proceed, limit its scope or route it to a person with approval authority.

The software also records what Omnissa describes as the full decision chain in real time, including what happened, who authorised it and which systems were affected. That record is intended to provide an audit trail for internal governance and compliance processes.

Industry Analyst Adam Holtby said the move reflects a broader shift in enterprise technology as AI systems progress from assisting staff to acting directly across business platforms.

"As the agentic AI era sees the technology move from just assisting employees to actually taking actions across business systems, governance becomes a necessity. Organisations need to understand not only which AI tools and agents are being used, but the identities, devices, applications and data the tools access, the actions they are permitted to take, and what happens when something goes wrong," said Adam Holtby, Principal Analyst at Omdia.

"This creates an important role for technologies such as Elara that can help organizations with visibility, policy and control across digital business ecosystems. The challenge now is connecting those existing control points into a governance model that can keep pace as AI becomes more autonomous and embedded across business workflows."

Omnissa, previously VMware's end-user computing business before becoming independent in 2024, says it serves 26,000 customers worldwide. The company positions its broader platform around endpoint management, virtual applications and desktops, and digital employee experience software.

Elara extends that focus into AI oversight as companies try to balance AI adoption with tighter control over access, actions and accountability.