FD Insights Issue 8 | Page 34

You Asked, We Answered:

Q&A on Horizon

By Nick Black, Business Manager, End User Computing,
Sub Saharan Africa, VMware

The VMware Horizon family is pretty crowded – a lot of
aunts and uncles and forgotten grannies stuffed into every
corner. We like it like that, as it means that our latest offering has something for everyone, but there are always some
questions that regularly pop up and I thought it would be
worth taking a look at the most popular ones.
Hopefully this will give you an insight into to the rich functionality of Horizon 6 and answer some of the most common
questions you have.
What is Horizon 6?
This solution hands IT the keys to the kingdom, really,
allowing the teams to deliver virtual or remote desktops and
applications through a single platform to end-users. These
include RDS hosted apps, packaged apps with VMware
ThinApp, SaaS apps and virtualised apps from Citrix.
This can all be accessed from one unified workspace so
that end-users have all the resources they want and IT ensures that they meet all the right standards and everything
fits perfectly into existing systems.
Horizon 6 comes in three editions: Horizon View Standard,
Horizon Advanced and Horizon Enterprise, and you can find
out more about all three by visiting our website http://www.vmware.com/products/horizon-view
What are the new features that come with Horizon 6?
There are over 150 new features so it’s worth visiting the
official site to see them all and really get into the details, but
I do want to highlight a few of my favourites.
I think that the ability to centrally manage virtual, physical
and BYO (bring your own) images at speed is brilliant for
the business. Another strong feature is that desktops and
applications can be delivered through a single platform and
a unified workspace – this makes a huge difference to the
user experience and productivity.
There is also closed-loop management and automation and
the ability to optimise for the software-defined data centre.
Virtualisation is, obviously, a key element of this offering

and we’ve endeavoured to provide high-level agility and
optimisation on this front throughout.
What happened to Horizon View?
This offering is still here, it is a standalone in Horizon View
Standard Edition at the same price as the original Horizon
View Premier Bundle. This is a very reliable solution for
any business that wants a simple and powerful desktop
virtualisation solution, but for more advanced or extended
benefits you would do well to take a look at other options
such as the Horizon Advanced Edition.
What’s the difference between Horizon Enterprise and
VMware Horizon Suite?
VMware Horizon Suite has support for file sharing, which
Enterprise does not, but Enterprise has support for hosted RDS applications and desktops, Virtual SAN, Mirage
for Desktop Image Management, Cloud Volumes and a
cloud-orchestrating plug in, which the Suite does not. Your
selection of solution would depend on which option best
suited your business and current infrastructure.
What is Blast Performance?
This comprehensive set of technologies has been designed
to ensure that end users have fantastic experiences across
devices, locations, media and connections. You can find
a lot more detail on what Blast covers and how it can be
adapted to fit your business here - http://www.vmware.com/
products/horizon-view/features.html
What happens if I am using an earlier version of Horizon and I want to buy Horizon 6?
You will receive a complimentary upgrade to Horizon
View Standard Edition if you have a valid VMware
SnS contract, but if you don’t have one you can
visit one of our authorised resellers who can
get you hooked up and ready to virtualise.

VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel [phone] Fax [phone] www.vmware.com

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