As we settle into the first ever, entirely remote VMworld, we reflect on the year so far and the sharp turn we have collectively taken to work from home. Remote work has become mainstream and many organizations have turned to VMware Horizon and Horizon Cloud to securely deliver corporate resources to their employees, keeping them connected, productive and engaged. But not all virtual desktop and app platforms are built equally, as delivering virtual workspaces to significant numbers of end users quickly can have its own challenges. With Horizon’s capabilities and flexible deployment options across on-premises and the public cloud, organizations have quick access to resources and agility when they need it most. Let’s put a spotlight on the latest Horizon headlines and developments at VMworld 2020.
Introducing Workspace Security VDI
We are excited to announce the general availability of Workspace Security VDI, which delivers an intrinsically secure virtual desktop and application solution that has been designed and fully tested by a single vendor. By combining Horizon and VMware Carbon Black Cloud into a single, unified solution, Workspace Security VDI consolidates multiple endpoint security capabilities such as threat identification and prevention, endpoint detection and response, auditing capabilities and the ability to investigate data breaches into a cohesive solution. It has a modernized, lightweight approach that significantly improves performance and protects against a new wave of attack vectors that traditional anti-virus solutions are not able to detect. IT and security teams can use Workspace Security VDI across the hybrid cloud, from on-premises to cloud-hosted environment VDI and app deployments such as Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure. To learn more, look for a blog tomorrow that delves into all of our Workspace Security solutions.
VMware Horizon Now Runs on Microsoft Azure VMware Solution
Microsoft recently announced the general availability of Azure VMware Solution (AVS) – a hosted service from Microsoft based on VMware Cloud Foundation that gives our customers the ability to extend the power of Horizon and vSphere to Azure. As a result, you can move on-premises Horizon deployments to Azure as part of a cloud migration, or transform your Horizon environment into an elastic hybrid and multi-cloud desktop virtualization platform that can help you conquer the challenges of today’s fluctuating workplace. Quickly provision and scale Horizon virtual desktop and application workloads leveraging key technologies such as Instant Clones and Blast Extreme protocol. To learn more, read this blog.
In addition to customer-managed Horizon platforms like Horizon on AVS, VMware also has Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure, a Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) platform that takes the Horizon infrastructure management off your plate so you can focus on only managing desktops and applications. Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure also lets you take advantage of the benefits of Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop, including Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session. Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure continues to get updated frequently, with a major update recently released that includes support for App Volumes.
Try our curated Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure activity path on TechZone.
Simplified, Modernized Management with (More) Services From the Cloud
The Horizon Control Plane simplifies management with services that connect entitlement and management layers across Horizon pods in different data centers and clouds. The newly integrated Universal Broker delivers a global entitlement layer that intelligently provisions end users to their personal desktop or app in any connected pod or cloud based on availability or proximity to provide the best possible user experience. Image and application management is also simplified with services that can be used across pods and clouds – create an image or app package once and distribute to Horizon deployments as needed. These features, coupled with real-time performance monitoring and end-to-end security, unlock key hybrid and multi-cloud use cases such as work from home, business continuity, real-time bursting, disaster recovery and high availability which simplify and optimize your cloud investment.
Horizon 8: Unleashing the Power of Secure Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Deployments with a Modern Platform
Made available in August this year, Horizon 8 delivers a modern platform for virtual desktop and app delivery across the hybrid cloud, from the market leaders in SDDC and digital workspaces. The release delivered expanded support for hybrid and multi-cloud architectures that allow organizations to scale flexibly across public and private clouds such as VMware Cloud on AWS and Microsoft Azure – now also with support for Google Cloud, VMware Cloud on Dell EMC, as well as Azure VMware Solution. Full support for new RESTful APIs help automate rich capabilities and orchestrate services on the Horizon platform, modernizing services and processes with speed, providing endless possibilities to enhance and streamline their Horizon environment. The list goes on – read the launch blog for more detailed information.
It’s been a busy year and we are excited to share all these new developments with you. In case you missed it, check out this blog to find a full summary of all the exciting VMworld announcements from our End User Computing keynote session this week.
To learn more about all of the Digital Workspace news at VMworld 2020, head over to our keynote recap blog: VMworld 2020: All of our EUC announcements, themes, and everything else you need to know.
