by Sachin Sharma, Product Marketing, VMware
Yesterday we announced Horizon Mirage 4.3 at VMworld Barcelona. Horizon Mirage 4.3 will have many great new features that further enhance IT’s ability to manage physical endpoints. But what is really unique about this announcement is that for the first time, VMware is bringing together Horizon View and Horizon Mirage to support persistent virtual desktops with full clones.
Why is this so cool and how does it work?
By leveraging Horizon Mirage, IT can now manage OS images and applications at scale in Horizon View. The layering capabilities in Horizon Mirage allow IT to control which layers stay preserved after image updates. For example, this could mean that all user-installed applications and data on a virtual desktop stays preserved after an image update to that endpoint.
Not only does this give IT the ability to truly support persistent virtual desktops, it gives them a single platform to manage both their physical and virtual endpoints. And end users get the benefit of being able to use applications of their choice and have these persist across image updates.
So what else can customers expect to be able to take advantage of in Horizon Mirage 4.3? VMware is also announcing the following features:
- New CVD Policy Features – Time, time, time! Time is always of the essence in any IT shop. Horizon Mirage 4.3 introduces some CVD policy features that will help speed up deployments. A new image management policy allows centralization of CVDs to occur with little to no data upload. This feature also helps in Windows 7 migration deployments because there is less data that gets uploaded to the Horizon Mirage Server. Optimization settings for LAN environments allow for faster centralization phases. IT also now has more control over throttling of the Horizon Mirage client on each endpoint.
- Windows 7 Migration Enhancements – During a Windows 7 migration project, user downtime is a critical component to how successful the project will be. In Horizon Mirage 4.3, during OS migration we’ve introduced the ability to deploy Windows 7 applications layers along with the base layer. This helps in getting applications to users in a quicker manner.
- Web Console Enhancements – A new role in the Horizon Mirage Web Console has been introduced. The Protection Manager role helps IT administrate endpoints from a single pane of glass. Endpoint centralization status, trends and endpoint errors are provided in a dashboard view. The Protection Manager can edit upload policies, build collections, restore endpoints,and much more.
- Centralization Calculator – Endpoints typically get centralized while end users work. Now, estimating how long the centralization process can take is made possible with the new Centralization Calculator. Simply fill in the values that your environment is comprised of, such as total number of endpoints and CVD size, and the calculator will estimate the centralization time phase. This is applicable to any environment of any size.
Horizon Mirage 4.3 will introduce several enhancements that pave the way for IT to better manage their physical and virtual endpoints. For more Horizon Mirage updates, please visit us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or discuss in our Communities.
