PALO ALTO, CA: VMware, a provider of cloud infrastructure and business mobility solutions, announces the newly advanced VM Horizon and VMware Horizon Air with hybrid capabilities to simplify application and desktop delivery by combining the benefits of hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) and Virtual SAN Ready Nodes with a single, cloud-based plane to manage on-premises and cloud deployments.

VM Horizon is a digital work space solution for delivering and managing virtual applications and desktops with cloud economics and a new cloud-optimized display protocol.

VMware Horizon 7 and Horizon Air

VMware Horizon 7 and Horizon Air are equipped with the following features:

Just in Time Delivery – Built on VMware Instant Clone Technology, the provisioning of full-featured, personalized digital workspaces are accelerated with the ability to provision 2,000 desktops in under 20 minutes

Blast Extreme – The new display protocol for mobile cloud networks will offer GPU off-load to increase scale and mobile network support for the broadest range of H.264 capable devices including the industry’s lowest cost endpoints. Blast Extreme or PCoIP, is built on a suite of user experience features and the widest array of client device options.

Application Lifecycle Management – Included in the solution is VMware App Volumes solution. VMware App Volumes 3.0 delivers a modern approach to application lifecycle management that simplifies the creation, deployment and management of applications. It enables lifecycle management at an application level while still delivering the benefits of application layering. It offers key capabilities for application lifecycle management such as automation,flexible delivery and monitoring, integrated end-user management, and unified administration. 

Smart Policies– Organizational IT security will be improved through a real-time, policy-based solution with contextual and role-based management with capabilities such as USB and clipboard control, drive redirection and protocol settings. This feature is available on the VMware Horizon 7 only.

Integration with VMware Workspace ONE – VMware Horizon will be integrated through VMware Workspace ONE. VMware Workspace ONE delivers a digital workspace that integrates EMM, VDI and identity management technologies to offer combined benefits on a single mobile platform to enable secure management and delivery of business critical resources to employees for corporate IT, and consumer simple access for end-users.

VMware Horizon Air with Hybrid-Mode

VMware Horizon Air with Hybrid mode combines the economic benefits of cloud-based VMware virtual application and desktop technology, with the simplicity of hyper-converged infrastructure and Virtual SAN Ready Nodes. This consists of two components -a unified Cloud Control Plane and Horizon Node technology that works with VMware Horizon Air ready infrastructure.

The Cloud Control Plane is a cloud-based management layer hosted on VMware vCloud Air that will offer IT administrators a single view to manage and deliver new hyper-converged infrastructure and Virtual SAN Ready Nodes. The Horizon Node Technology that resides on hyper-converged infrastructure will be connected, managed and controlled from the Cloud Control Plane and will provide intelligent orchestration, delivery and management of workloads running on the hyper-converged infrastructure appliances and racks. Features:

 Simple Out of the Box Set-Up – VMware Horizon Air enabled hyper-converged appliances will offer plug-and-play simplicity so virtual applications and desktops can be up and running in less than an hour.

Create and Scale Desktops at Cloud Speed – VMware Instant Clone technology integrated with VMware App Volumes and VMware User Environment Management technologies will allow IT administrators to create and scale desktops at cloud speed – same as the VMware Horizon 7 and Horizon Air.

Eliminate Maintenance Windows and Software Updates Seamlessly – Maintenance windows will be eliminated with seamless software updates that can be applied instantly to Windows images and applications. New platform features and enhancements will also be made available for easy updates via the Cloud Control Plane.

Hybrid Cloud Flexibility – Application and desktop workloads will be able to be moved back and forth from on-premises data centers to the cloud, all managed from a consistent Cloud Control Plane along with the flexibility of using the cloud as a primary use case for everyday work, or secondary use case for desktop bursting or disaster recovery.

These advancements provide comprehensive application and desktop virtualization portfolio with on-premises, off-premises or hybrid deployments.