When VMware Horizon 7 was introduced to the market just a few months ago, it represented a shift in the way virtual desktops and apps could be delivered and managed. Several new 
capabilities highlighted the innovations in Horizon 7, including Smart Policies and Blast Extreme. One of the most exciting features introduced was the concept of Instant Clone technology.
Instant Clone capability comes from our vision of helping customers deliver a Software-Defined Data Center, and cloning virtual desktops (VDI) happens to be a great use case in using that capability. This technology shifts the traditional VDI deployment model from a somewhat cumbersome and time-consuming process to a rapid and fully-customizable process. Instead of using traditional virtual desktop cloning methods, which require power cycle and reconfiguration calls, Instant Clone technology allows IT to clone virtual desktops in memory from an existing running virtual desktop, resulting in desktops that can be created in seconds rather than hours!
As if that’s not exciting enough, imagine what you can do when you combine Instant Clone technology with VMware App Volumes. App Volumes helps deliver applications to users and desktops in real-time, simplifying the lifecycle management of apps that helps reduce costs associated with managing images and storage capacity by 70%. Many customers are taking advantage of App Volumes for their Horizon, Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop and RDSH environments today—and doing it at scale.
Combining App Volumes and Instant Clone capability gives IT a way to not only provision newly created desktops in seconds, but also deliver apps and settings to users who access these desktops. IT can set up a pool of non-persistent desktops, but still give end users a persistent experience, enabling “just-in-time” desktop and app delivery.
Using App Volumes and Instant Clone together is what makes desktop and app delivery from VMware so unique, giving IT an architecture that eliminates any need for complex point solutions.
Which is why we are thrilled to announce the general availability of App Volumes 2.11 today. This new release enables Horizon 7 customers to take advantage of Instant Clones in conjunction with App Volumes.
There’s Even More!
While the release of App Volumes 2.11 is designed to support Instant Clone technology in conjunction with VMware Horizon 7, VMware is also working to help customers optimize app delivery and user management in other VDI platforms like Citrix XenDesktop.
To illustrate this point, we had a chance to show customers Project Orion at Citrix Synergy just a few weeks ago. Project Orion, currently in technology preview and is designed to allow Instant Clone technology to run with XenDesktop. This will ensure that Citrix customers can also take advantage of Instant Clone technology with App Volumes to deliver fully-customized desktops and app in real-time!
We are excited about the innovations we are driving into the market to help simplify how applications can be managed and delivered across on-premises and cloud-hosted environments.
Last quarter, we announced App Volumes 3.0, which is a new extensible application and user management platform optimized for cloud-based deployments, such as VMware Horizon Air. And with App Volumes 2.11, we are bringing to market great new features and a release tailored specifically for our on-premises Horizon 7 customers. We will continue to develop both VMware App Volumes 2.x and 3.0 and look forward to bringing these together into a single platform in the fullness of time.
We encourage all Horizon 7 customers to take a test drive of App Volumes 2.11, and we look forward to your feedback!
For more updates on VMware App Volumes, please visit us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or discuss in our Communities.
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