VMware Horizon
What is VMware Horizon?
VMware Horizon is a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution that allows organizations to deliver virtual desktops and applications to users. It can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud and provides a centralized management console that allows administrators to easily provision, update, and manage virtual desktops and applications.
Some key features of VMware Horizon include:
- Flexibility: VMware Horizon can be easily scaled up or down to meet the organization’s changing needs and can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud.
- Management and administration: VMware Horizon provides a centralized management console that allows administrators to easily provision, update, and manage virtual desktops and applications.
- Security: VMware Horizon provides advanced security features such as encryption, authentication, and access controls to help protect against unauthorized access and data breaches.
- Performance: VMware Horizon is optimized for virtual desktop environments and can help to improve the performance and user experience of virtual desktops and applications.
- Integration: VMware Horizon integrates seamlessly with other VMware products, such as vCenter and vSphere, to provide a complete solution for delivering and managing virtual desktops and applications.
- Horizon Clients: These are software clients that can be installed on users’ devices to provide access to virtual desktops and applications. Clients are available for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, and HTML5 web browsers.
- Horizon Cloud: This is a cloud-based service that allows organizations to deliver virtual desktops and applications to users over the internet.
- Horizon Connection Server: This is a Windows-based server that acts as the connection point between users and their virtual desktops and applications.
- Horizon Composer: This is a feature that allows administrators to create and manage linked-clone desktops.
- Instant Clones: This is a feature that allows administrators to quickly create new virtual machines based on an existing virtual machine.
See it in Action
Below you can watch a short demonstration of how VMware Horizon can be accessed by your users. In this demo the users device is installed with IGEL OS, the Virtual Desktop is located in an On-Premise Datacenter.
VMware Horizon is a mature and widely adopted solution, and it provides a comprehensive feature set that can be used to deliver virtual desktops and applications to users. It is considered as a robust and flexible solution for VDI and can be integrated with other third-party solutions such as IGEL OS to improve security, performance, and management of the endpoint devices.
To find out more about IGEL click the hedgehog:
Technology Feature Comparison
Here is a sample table comparing some of the key features of Citrix DaaS, VMware Horizon, Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop, and Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS), this is designed to help you evaluate which product would be best fit for your virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) implementation:
| Feature | Citrix DaaS | VMware Horizon | Microsoft AVD | Microsoft RDS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtualization technology | XenApp and XenDesktop | Horizon | Windows Virtual Desktop | RemoteFX/RDP |
| Cloud deployment options | Cloud-hosted, on-premises, hybrid | Cloud-hosted, on-premises, hybrid | Azure-hosted | On-premises, hybrid |
| Management and administration | Citrix Studio, Citrix Cloud | VMware vCenter, Horizon Console | Azure Portal, Windows Virtual Desktop | Remote Desktop Services Manager, Group Policy |
| User experience | High-definition audio and video, multimedia redirection | High-definition audio and video, multimedia redirection | High-definition audio and video, multimedia redirection | RemoteFX/RDP |
| Security | End-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, access controls | End-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, access controls | End-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, access controls | Network Level Authentication, Remote Desktop Gateway |
| Scalability | Can scale to handle thousands of users | Can scale to handle thousands of users | Can scale to handle thousands of users | Can scale to handle thousands of users |
| Cost | Based on a per-user or per-device basis | Based on a per-user or per-device basis | Based on usage and number of users | Based on number of CALs (Client Access Licenses) required |
Please note that this table is just a sample and it's not exhaustive, there are other features and capabilities that each product can offer. This table is focused on the most common features that are used to compare these products.