By Ben Goodman, Horizon Lead Evangelist, End-User Computing
It’s a very exciting time. Today, at VMWorld 2012 we began previewing the alpha version of the VMware Horizon Suite. Horizon is a platform that we believe makes it easier for both administrators to manage the challenges associated with mobility, cloud, and employee BYOD while also providing the most productive and enjoyable computing experience on the devices your internal customers choose.
We’ve discussed the challenges associated with the rise of consumerized IT and cloud computing numerous times previously, so there’s no sense in going into that today. But I wanted to take the time to bring this to your attention because today does mark a very big step forward in our vision of how to successfully manage these challenges.
And this really is a significant step. This is because the VMware Horizon Suite brings together many of the technologies here at VMware – Project Octopus, Project AppBlast, ThinApp, VMware Horizon Application Manager and VMware Horizon Mobile, as well as the management of VMware View. This not only includes VMware technologies, but also software that runs on Windows and applications delivered via Citrix XenApp, for example. Think about this: for the first time ever end users can launch and run XenApp applications right next to their ThinApp applications.
This makes it possible for enterprises to get the consistent governance they need, while workers enjoy separate personal and business workspaces and consistent access to applications and data on any personal device.
Through a central Web management console, the VMware Horizon Suite enables IT to customize a service catalog for all company data and applications. Horizon Suite will understand a user’s attributes and environment (device, location and connectivity level) and then enforce policies across applications, data, and devices. This will make it possible for you to deliver Windows, Android, iOS, web and SaaS applications in a single workspace and give your users self-service access to applications and data from anywhere.
With Horizon Suite, end users can also securely access and share their data and files from any device.
With the IT management complexities that come with workers turning to more applications on phones, tablets, notebooks, and desktops – admins need to be able to manage and orchestrate all of this access in a centralized way. Horizon Suite enables you to do exactly that – the delivery of IT apps and data to end users anywhere and on any device. Horizon can do this because Horizon manages from the middle, rather than the endpoint, through identity, context, and policy. And through its web console, IT can deliver a customized service catalog to users so they can select delivery of on-demand Windows, Mobile, SaaS, and Web-based applications to end-users on any device.
And that’s the power here: the security, governance, and manageability enterprises need while also providing all of the freedoms of choice and work style associated with the BYOD and consumerization of IT trends.
I invite you to learn more about Horizon Suite, and you can do that:
- By reading the Horizon Suite Press Release
- Reading our white paper that tackles these issues: IT’s Fight for Relevance in the Age of Consumerization
- And visiting the EUC pods at the VMware Booth
