VMware transforms Digital Workspace

VMware has introduced updates to the industry-leading VMware Horizon portfolio. The innovations are designed to drive down the cost and complexity of delivering and managing virtual applications and desktops, enabling an affordable way to deliver Windows as part of a modern digital workspace with a great user experience. In 2016, VMware was recognized as a leader for the second consecutive year by the IDC Marketscape for having the most complete mix of business and solution strategies and capabilities for delivering virtual desktops and applications through its VMware Horizon portfolio of solutions and services.

“A digital workspace strategy is a must for IT to manage across user types, devices and applications, and delivering Windows applications and desktops through virtualization to a digital workspace is the best approach for today’s modern environment,” said Shankar Iyer, Senior Vice-President & General Manager, Desktop Products, End-User Computing, VMware. “Until now, many organizations have been on the sidelines because of cost, complexity and lack of flexibility of deployment, but these new innovations in the VMware Horizon portfolio of on-premises, cloud hosted and hybrid solutions will offer businesses a more cost-effective and simple way to deploy virtual desktops and applications to support their digital workspace strategy.”

Customers are seeking improvements in user experience and costs to continue their expansion of desktop and application virtualization as they move to digital workspaces for their mobile workforces. The Just-in-Time Management Platform (JMP) will be available across the Horizon portfolio of solutions and will integrate VMware App Volumes, Instant Clone and User Environment Manager to simplify end-user profile management and accelerate time-to-desktop and time-to-application to deliver these improvements to customers. 

New innovations in VMware Blast will deliver an improved end-user experience for digital workspace users. The new Blast Adaptive Transport technology will help maximize bandwidth utilization by dynamically adjusting to network conditions, including varying speeds and severe packet loss to maintain a great user experience across network types – from corporate LANs to public Wi-Fi to mobile networks. 

VMware and IBM continue to expand their partnership with the introduction of VMware Horizon Cloud, the next generation of virtual desktop and application cloud services from VMware. The new VMware Horizon Cloud service will deliver and manage virtual desktops and applications hosted on the IBM Cloud and on-premises using certified hyperconverged infrastructure to enable organizations to expand the use-cases for Desktops-as-a-Service (DaaS). VMware Horizon Cloud takes advantage of the latest Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) technology running on the IBM Cloud which helps accelerate virtualized desktop applications, especially for computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), including AutoCAD.

VMware Horizon Cloud delivers feature-rich enterprise Windows desktops and applications that are ideal for cloud adopters or specialized use cases such as seasonal workers. The solution enables customers to choose from several deployment models, including on-premises BYO hyperconverged infrastructure, cloud-hosted infrastructure, or both. Operations and management are streamlined using a centralized cloud control plane and JMP technology that delivers time to value by reducing the time required to configure, deploy and manage enterprise desktops and applications.

"IBM continues to invest in and extend its strategic partnership with VMware, and together we are bringing enterprise-class solutions to our clients," said Zane Adam, Vice-President, IBM Cloud. “By running VMware Horizon Cloud on the IBM Cloud, enterprises can take advantage of virtual desktops and applications without the cost and hassle of managing or owning the infrastructure. This service provides an easy on-ramp to the cloud that is flexible and cost- effective.”

Horizon Apps is a new solution that adds to the Horizon 7 portfolio of on-premises offerings. Customers can choose the updated Horizon 7.1 for their desktop strategy or Horizon Apps for a holistic application-centric strategy using published applications. In addition to the benefits delivered by JMP and BLAST, customers also benefit from significant provisioning costs that are roughly half of the competition.

A technology preview of Microsoft Skype for Business for Horizon 7.1 will also be available and the solution will offer secure collaboration to keep corporate data secure in the data center to prevent data leakage.

On 15th February, VMware will conduct a free virtual tradeshow where it will share details about new products and showcase technology demonstrations. 

VMware Horizon Apps, VMware Horizon Cloud and updates to VMware Horizon 7 are expected to be available in April 2017.

Pricing for VMware Horizon Apps starts at $125 per named user for a perpetual licence. VMware Horizon Cloud pricing starts at $16 per named user a month. VMware Horizon 7 pricing starts at $250 per concurrent user.