VMware today announced the release of version 6 of its end user computing suite: Horizon.
Starting with this version VMware not only provides a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution based on View, but now also provides a Server Based Computing (SBC) solution leveraging Remote Desktop Services (RDS) from Microsoft. With the addition of SBC, VMware is now capable of publishing applications, where the application runs on a server which is shared with other users at the same time.
With this announcement VMware starts to directly compete with Citrix’s products XenApp and XenDesktop offering a comparable solution. It’s also interesting to note that VMware supports publishing XenApp published applications to be made available in the Horizon Workspace application catalog, providing an easy way for existing XenApp customers to migrate to Horizon.
By combining Horizon View, Horizon Mirage and Fusion VMware now has a complete solution to manage virtual, physical and personally owned devices.
Horizon will be offered in three editions:
- Horizon View Standard Edition: Offering VDI-based virtual desktops.
- Horizon Advanced Edition: Offering both published and virtual applications, leverages VMware Virtual SAN, provides central image management and provides a unified workspace for managing and delivering all applications and desktops.
- Horizon Enterprise Edition: Delivers a cloud-ready solution for desktops and applications with advanced cloud-like automation and management capabilities for hybrid cloud flexibility. Adding plug-ins for vCenter Ops Management and vCO.
More detailed analysis can be found at Brian Madden’s blog and by Gartner analyst Gunnar Berger who both provide some more details on this news from VMware.