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The ABCs of Deploying VMware Horizon View 5.2 with Microsoft Lync 2013

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Tony Huynh, Product Management End-User Computing

It gives me great pleasure to announce that the VMware Horizon View 5.2 Microsoft Lync 2013 VDI Client Installation/Configuration Guide is now publicly available.

The document provides a step-by-step guide on how to deploy a Microsoft Lync 2013 client on a VMware Horizon View desktop along with a Lync VDI plugin on a Windows client.  By doing so, customers can leverage the power of the Lync VDI plugin to make rich voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) and videoconferencing calls without negatively affecting the datacenter server or network.

The document will help partners and customers understand and avoid some common mistakes when deploying the Microsoft Lync 2013 client and Lync VDI plugin with Horizon View desktops.

Some common pitfalls when deploying the Lync 2013 client and Lync VDI plugin include:

  • Knowing what is and is not supported
  • Downloading/installing the correct software
  • Misconfiguration of Lync 2013 server and client and Lync VDI plugin
  • Windows client misconfiguration

Follow up questions

If you have additional questions regarding the deployment of the Lync 2013 client and Lync VDI plugin with Horizon View 5.2 desktops, please post your questions to our community page.

Useful Links

Lync client qualified devices

Deploying Lync VDI Plugin

Lync VDI Troubleshooting

Lync VDI plugin (32-bit) download

Tell us your thoughts on this latest announcement on Facebook and Twitter!

 

Abracadabra! Horizon Mirage 4.2 Help Desk web console for fulfilling user requests

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By Tina de Benedictis, Senior Technical Marketing Manager, End-User Computing, VMware 

A primary new feature offered in Horizon Mirage 4.2 is a Help Desk web console. This web console enables Help Desk personnel to easily fulfill common user requests, such as desktop recovery and incremental backups, always with the zero-touch style of Horizon Mirage. The Horizon Mirage Web Manager transforms Help Desk personnel into magicians!

Magic Hat and Wand

The new web console allows Horizon Mirage Help Desk personnel to perform the following actions on selected devices:

  • Enforce Layers
  • Set Drivers (device drivers)
  • Reboot
  • Suspend
  • Synchronize (synchronize the current endpoint with the backup image)
  • Collect Logs
  • Restore (restore desktop from a backup image)
  • Revert to Snapshot (restore to a particular snapshot of the desktop)
  • Note (enter notes about a device)

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The Convergence of IT and Communications

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by Geoffrey Murase, Solutions Marketing, End-User Computing

This past week I had the opportunity to attend the International Avaya User Group (IAUG) conference in Orlando, Florida.  The name of the conference was aptly titled “Converge2013” and brought together almost 3,000 users and partners of Avaya unified communications and networking gear.  VMware was one of the sponsors of the event and we met many Avaya customers who came by our exhibitor booth.

It was interesting to see that a few “old school” telephony administrators didn’t know who VMware was.  VMwho?  Historically, the IT department handled all of the servers, networking, and applications while the telephony administrator managed the phone system.  However, as adoption of Voice over IP has become more prevalent, there has been a convergence of these roles.  On the virtualization front, communications applications can be seen as just another app and deployed as a virtual machine in the datacenter.  In addition, on the end-user front, as softphones increasingly are used both at the office desk and on mobile devices, desktop virtualization can simplify management and security of communications.

VMware has worked closely with Avaya to enable scalable deployments of softphones without taxing the datacenter.  Using a custom developed plug-in, client devices can communicate point to point after an initial communications session is established.  Coding and decoding of real-time media is handled by the endpoint instead of at the datacenter which helps reduce latency and enable highly scalable deployments.  A webinar recording is available on YouTube that gives all of the details for this joint Avaya VMware solution.

While desktop virtualization in the unified communications space is a relatively new concept, many Avaya customers I spoke to are interested in using it for specific use cases.  Probably the most popular use case is for contact centers.  Contact center agents only require access to a limited application set and don’t install custom applications on their endpoints.  Furthermore, the contact center function is often outsourced or is located offshore.  This use case is ideal for desktop virtualization which provides the security, ease of scalability, and ease of management outsourcing and offshoring require.  A new VMware white paper is available that highlights how businesses can leverage desktop virtualization for their offshoring and outsourcing initiatives.

No doubt some telephony administrators are resistant to change as having ownership of the communications system ensures job security for them.  However, these people will be left behind as the convergence of IT and communications continues unabated.

Were you at IAUG as well?  Let us know on Facebook and Twitter!

 

Announcing Horizon Mirage 4.2!

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by Hanan Stein, Product Management, End-User Computing

Today, VMware is pleased to announce the launch of the latest edition of VMware® Horizon Mirage™: the Horizon Mirage 4.2 release. In Horizon Mirage 4.2 VMware has made major storage performance improvements which greatly reduces the time it takes an endpoint to finish centralization. How significant is the impact you ask? Great question! Unfortunately, the answer is that it depends heavily on your environment, but we are quite sure that it will reduce the time significantly in environments where the storage is the bottleneck.  So we could have published “X% improvement achieved in the lab” we will try to share performance improvement data from real world deployments if our customers give us permission to publish it!

What’s new in VMware Horizon Mirage 4.2?

Endpoint centralization improvements – By reducing the total number of IOPS required, Horizon Mirage 4.2 significantly reduces the time it takes for an endpoint to finish centralizing.  Large deployments with thousands of devices will notice the most improvement!

Windows Vista OS support – Horizon Mirage now supports Windows Vista for disaster recovery and Windows 7 Migration (both in place migrations and through hardware refresh.).  As with Windows XP to Win7 migration, users can continue to work as Horizon Mirage downloads the Win7 image in the background, minimizing end-user down time.

New Help Desk Web Console: Horizon Mirage 4.2 provides web portal to helpdesk personal for troubleshooting and the repair of an end user’s system.   The Help Desk Web Console offers easy access to the admin console from any browser.

Localization – Horizon Mirage client and File portal are now localized and support four new languages: French, German, Japanese and Simplified Chinese

Automated in-place Windows 7 Migration with Sophos 5.5 - Horizon Mirage can now migrate an enpoint with Sophos 5.5. endpoint encryption running without the need to de-crypt and re-crypt the endpoint.   This makes the security and compliance team very happy!

VMware Licensing Alignment:  Horizon Mirage is no longer licensed by device count but instead on the Horizon Suite user-based licensing model.

We are incredibly excited to announce our latest developments for Horizon Mirage.   Tell us your thoughts on our latest announcement via Facebook and Twitter.

Giving PCs New Purpose

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By: Courtney Burry, Director of Product Marketing, End User Computing, VMware

Simplifying desktop management is still a very compelling reason for organizations across the globe to make the move to desktop virtualization. And not surprisingly, many organizations seem to make this move when faced with an upcoming or imminent PC refresh. Why? Because they can take the money that would typically go into buying a whole new fleet of PCs and instead invest this money into virtual desktop infrastructure. PCs can be repurposed to run as thin clients and given a new lease on life-usually with better performance. And IT organizations can focus on improving data security, supporting workplace mobility and driving down the day to day costs of desktop management.

Information Age highlighted a great example of this with Hertz-the global car rental company, earlier this week. Faced with the need to improve operational efficiencies, Hertz had the choice of refreshing its fleet of 4000 PCs and laptops spread across over 1,000 sites across Europe or moving to desktop virtualization.

By moving to desktop virtualization with VMware® Horizon View™, Hertz has been able to improve PCI compliance and security, reduce operational costs (help desk incidents alone have dropped by 33%) and simplify technical infrastructure.

Not surprisingly, Hertz expects to save a lot of hardware investments in the coming years by extending desktop lifecycles from three to five years up to 10 years with the use of Dell Wyse thin clients.

Western Wayne-a school district out in Pennsylvania, is another really good case in point. The district received a “classrooms for the future” grant a couple of years back. Instead of putting the money into new laptops-the IT department opted to build out their virtual desktop infrastructure and move to thin clients. And while the district spent a good chunk of their grant on getting their virtual desktop project off the ground in year one-by year two they were seeing real savings. In fact-they were even able to take some of these savings and offer up funding to the art and music departments for new technology purchases.

Now if you can’t repurpose PCs that you own in the process of moving to VDI- certain organizations have also shown that you can repurpose the PCs of your partners instead…

Facing significant budget cuts, the Iowa Workforce and Development Agency, one of Iowa’s largest state agencies-was actually asked to close over half of its 55 offices. Still intent on providing agency services-it partnered with other organizations that had PCs on hand for public use-including other state agencies, public libraries, National Guard Offices and colleges and leveraged virtual desktops to drive down costs by $6.5M, enhance security and reach more people than ever before. And it didn’t matter that partner PCs were older since the PCs were repurposed to run as thin clients. Today the agency has over 1500 virtual desktops running across all 99 counties in the state.

Looking to replace your fleet of desktops, laptops or tablets this year? You may just want to take a look at desktop virtualization and repurpose those PCs instead. :)

Are you considering desktop virtualization?  Tell us all about it on Twitter and Facebook!

 

 

 

No neckties in the paper shredder: Horizon Mirage Branch Reflectors

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By Tina de Benedictis, Senior Technical Marketing Manager, End-User Computing, VMware

No neckties in the paper shredder—what does that have to do with VMware Horizon Mirage Branch Reflectors? By the end of this blog post, you will know.

no-necktie-horizon-mirage-branch-reflectors

You have probably noticed those words or an icon on the paper shredder that indicate you should not put neckties in the paper shredder. Who would put a necktie in the paper shredder? It might be someone who was not paying enough attention and let their necktie dangle into the shredder, or it might be someone who hated that particular necktie and thought the paper shredder was the right place to demolish it.

This is where we find the similarity to Horizon Mirage Branch Reflectors. Branch Reflectors are for efficient handling of layer updates coming down from the datacenter to endpoints, not for backups of endpoints going back up to the datacenter. Who would think that Branch Reflectors are for backups? A lot of people do, and they are surprised to find out that they need to think about their WAN instead of the LAN when planning backups of branch-office endpoints.

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Securely deliver apps, data and desktops to personal devices

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As customers start embracing Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD), users can choose their own devices to improve productivity and collaboration. it is critical that all the different components are highly secure as users start using devices that are outside the network perimeter and not controlled by the IT department. Customers researching solutions should delve deeper into the security aspects of the different components. We recently posted couple documents discusses basic security consideration and the security features in Horizon Workspace v1.0  and how security is top of mind when we built VMware Horizon Workspace.  We will be addressing security issues including privacy, compliance and risk management standards in the next security blog.

SMBs Prefer Horizon View Over Other VDI Solutions – Two Years in a Row

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By Courtney Burry, Director, Desktop Product Marketing, VMware

I’m excited to share that a recent study conducted by Spiceworks with small and midsized businesses (SMBs) revealed that VMware Horizon View is the solution of choice over the competition for a second year in a row.

By an almost 2-to-1 margin, Horizon View remains the top choice with the number of VDI agents deployed increasing from 53 percent in December 2011 to 57 percent in February 2013. The three leading VDI solutions found among SMBs were VMware Horizon View (57 percent), Citrix Virtual Desktop (31 percent) and NComputing vSpace Client (6 percent).

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School Testing: The Next Generation

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by Geoffrey Murase, Solutions Marketing for End-User Computing

When I was in elementary school, each year, we were administered a standardized test called the “California Test of Basic Skills” or CTBS.  This test involved using “number 2” pencils and filling out a form with boxes from A to E.  I remember thinking that if I didn’t know the answer, I should guess “C” because it’s in the middle.  Today, I can’t remember the last time I actually used a pencil.  However, many schools still use this antiquated way of administering standardized tests to students.

This is all about to change in the next couple of years.  According to the San Jose Mercury News, California, as one of 45 of the 50 states in the U.S. participating, will move toward a broad state-led program called the “Common Core State Standards Initiative.”  This initiative requires the standardization of testing across states by the 2014-2015 school year to ensure consistent performance assessments.  Quoting the article:

“Multiple-choice, fill-in-the-bubble tests alone simply cannot do the job anymore, and it’s time for California to move forward with assessments that measure the real-world skills our students need to be ready for a career and for college,” said California School Superintendent Tom Torlakson.

These next generation assessments will be computer-based and Pearson TestNav™ is a leading test delivery platform in K-12 schools that delivers over 4 million tests annually.  VMware is pleased to announce that our VMware® Horizon View™ desktop virtualization solution has received “TestNav Qualified” certification, ensuring that TestNav tests administered using Horizon View are delivered securely, error-free, and with a good user experience.  In fact, many schools have already deployed the TestNav platform with Horizon View and achieved great results:

“We’ve had tremendous success using VMware Horizon View for Pearson TestNav. Testing season brings a lot of stress to not only students but the staff as well. VMware Horizon View allows IT departments to facilitate these tests in a high availability environment, which is extremely comforting.”

- Brooks Moore, DCS Technology Help Desk Manager, Aledo Independent School District

“Using VMware Horizon View with the Pearson TestNav test delivery system ensures that our tests are administered in a secure environment that preserves the integrity of the results. Test environments are booted directly to our computer labs and if any attempt is made to escape out of the test, the test taker is locked out of the test. We initially rolled out VMware virtual desktops on a small scale in the Summer of 2012 but with the success that we’ve had, we now plan on rolling it out to all computer labs within our district.”

- Chad Branum, Executive Director of Technology, Coppell Independent School District

The good news is that these next generation assessments will hopefully give educators a clearer, more consistent understanding of how students are performing so that they can take corrective action where needed.  The bad news is that guessing “C” may no longer be an option for students in the coming years.

For more information about VMware and education, visit our website at: http://www.vmware.com/solutions/education/index.html

Continue the conversation with us on Twitter and Facebook!

NetApp has now introduced its VMware AlwaysOn Point of Care™ reference architecture built for healthcare

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by Monty Zarrouk, Product Marketing at NetApp

How will this improve patient care?

VMware® AlwaysOn Point of Care™ architecture helps solve customers’ problems by providing ready access to patient information from any terminal or mobile device. This allows clinicians to make informed decisions regarding treatment plans while protecting the confidentiality of patient information. Providing access to clinical applications in a virtual environment, healthcare providers maintain continued access to their desktop as they move from patient to patient, floor to floor, or building to building. Just like any sector, technology dictates a successful organization. And healthcare is no different. Medicine is changing, and a virtual desktop can mean all the difference in a patient’s outcomes.

Why did NetApp introduce VMware AlwaysOn Point of Care for healthcare?

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