VMware released Horizon 6. This is a new step forward in the world of end user computing. VMware enables companies to take the next step in enabling the end users to make use of IT services through a “one login, one experience, multiple devices” methodology. Truly enabling the end user in doing their business while using IT resources.
The post below gives you an overview of the key 6 features that are new in Horizon 6.
Cloud Pod Architecture
It will now be possible to enable View deployments across datacenters. There will be a new data layer replicated over all the View connection servers. This now makes it possible for any user to connect using a single namespace with a global URL. This new global entitlement layer will make sure that a seamless user experience takes place for the user and that the correct desktop entitlements are shown to the user regardless of what datacenter the resource is in.
The benefit of this is that View deployments can now to scaled across datacenters and that sessions can exceed above 10k instances. It will support Active / Active and DR use case scenarios for View desktops. And will be supporting geo-roaming users.
Hosted Apps with View
A new and long awaited feature in View 6 will be the integrated delivery of application and full desktops running on Microsoft windows Remote Desktop Services Hosts. It will provide seamless windows access to Windows Apps from Windows and Mac. Together with full screen access to Windows Apps for iOS and Android. Utilised through standard Horizon Clients with PCoIP.
This is a big step forwards for the Horizon Suite. It will now be possible to provide access to already existing apps hosted using RDSH. Investments that have already been made for this application delivery method can be utilized within the Horizion Suite. Providing full application integration for all end users.
VSAN integration
It will be possible to integrate VSAN with View as of View 5.3.1 and upwards together with vSphere 5.5 U1. You can scale your View clusters up to 32 nodes. This will reduce the initial investment as no additional SAN is needed to provide SAN resources to the View installation.
Also workload scales liner under heavy workload. For more information see: https://blogs.vmware.com/performance/2014/03/vdi-performance-benchmarking-vmware-virtual-san-5-5.html
Workspace
Workspace will provide you with “one login, one experience, any device”. It doesn’t matter which device you use. Your experience will be the same. It will be possible to customise the branding of the workspace, integrate approval chains for app approval and to have a singular app catalog for all users to browse through.
A variety of apps will be supported : Virtual Desktops, Horizon Hosted Apps, Packaged ThinApps, Google Apps, Office 365 Apps, Citrix XenApp and SaaS Apps.
vCOPS for View (V4V)
vCOPS for View will be updated and will have vCOPS 6 support. It will have single integrated console for all vCOPS supported environments. There will be View 6 support with RDSH Session Support. It will have application and in guest process metrics for troubleshooting.
There will be desktop workload optimization in the new product. It can be used for capacity measurements and can be used to do modeling in “What If” scenarios. This gives the ability to predict what will happen to the environment if additional resources are required. Last but not least the scalability will be improved for V4V to 25k concurrent users per instance.
Mirage
Mirage provides unified image management for virtual and physical desktops. It is a single tool for IT to manage desktop images. It gives you the ability to maintain and update the image without having to wipe the apps and data of the user using the desktop.
It will be integrated with VMware Horizon View. There will be support for 8.1. This is an interesting fact when looking at it from an upgrade perspective. It will now be possible to migrate with Mirage from Windows 7 to 8.1. And it will be possible to revert to a Windows 7 snapshot in case of a inadequate migration. This will result in minimized end-user downtime and will give you safety when upgrading to the new version. This makes it possible to migrate hundreds of devices per day.
For more information go to : http://www.vmware.com/go/horizon
