With the pandemic driving the increasing need for employees to work from home, organizations have been turning to VMware Horizon to virtualize desktops and applications and quickly deliver secure access to corporate resources to at-home workers. Over the past year we have been releasing exciting new cloud-native management services for Horizon that help customers meet these demands to efficiently scale their Horizon deployments.
Now, we are updating our licensing and packaging to help all customers take advantage of these innovations in a modern, predictable model by transitioning Horizon to subscription licensing and announcing the end of availability of new perpetual Horizon licenses, effective May 6th, 2021. We believe these changes will simplify the journey for our customers and allow them to leverage their investment as they grow to adopt the full digital workspace.
Here are 5 key reasons why this change is right for you:
• Reduce operational costs leveraging innovative cloud-native desktop and app management services. With subscription licensing for Horizon, customers can simplify desktop and app management for existing on-premises deployments by leveraging these new cloud-native services through the Horizon Control Plane. For example, Image and Application Management Services reduce image count, reduce time spent managing images across clouds and pods, and reduce app packaging complexity.
These cloud services are always up-to-date, greatly simplifying maintenance overhead of Horizon infrastructure. Customers also receive other services, such as Cloud Monitoring Service to help reduce downtime, and Horizon Lifecycle Management to simplify initial onboarding and configuration of Horizon environments on a wide variety of deployment options spanning on-premises and public clouds. You can learn more about the Horizon Control Plane services on Digital Workspace Tech Zone and check out our new Control Plane blog series, starting with Image Management Service.
• Simplify management of your on-premises environments without redeploying. Customer can be assured that we remain committed to investing in and supporting on-premises Horizon deployments. Now, they can add the benefits of cloud-native management services when transitioning to subscription licensing with no redeployment required. We also offer subscription options for pure on-premises deployments without cloud requirements. This means customers can continue to use their existing on-premises Horizon deployment without requiring an overhaul or lift and shift to the cloud, while still benefiting from cloud-based management – hybridity at its best!
• Gain entitlement to embrace cloud-optimized use cases for flexibility and agility. With access to a wide variety of cloud deployment options, IT can leverage bursting in a cost-effective manner and quickly scale VDI and app resources up and down without costly upfront capital purchases. IT can also use on-demand cloud resources for HA/DR scenarios without requiring a secondary or backup datacenter, which can be costly to set up and maintain. When you’re ready and if needed, customers can move key desktop and application workloads to the cloud.
• Take advantage of aggressive upgrade pricing to unlock hybrid management and cloud deployment options. With cost-effective upgrade pricing, now is the time for customers to start to capture the value of SaaS for their VDI and published app environments. The benefits of hybrid management and private and public cloud deployment options can help set customers up for success of their VDI and app deployments today and in the long-term.
• Accelerate your Journey to the Digital Workspace. VMware Workspace ONE is the leading digital workspace platform, enabling the best employee experience on any device, from anywhere. These new Horizon cloud native services simplify the delivery of desktops and apps, allowing IT to further enhance employees’ digital workspace experiences from a single platform.
In closing, we are excited about transitioning to a modern, predictable subscription model for all customers. We believe it’s the best path to access the latest cloud-native innovations that simplify your current on-premises environment and give you a pathway to leverage the benefits of cloud in the future. Customers can continue to purchase additional perpetual licenses through the end of availability on May 6th, 2021. At that point, all new license purchases will be subscription only, including options for both on-premises and hybrid-cloud deployments.
For more information, contact your VMware representative to start a conversation about which Horizon packaging options are right for you. We look forward to helping our customers take advantage of these exciting new license options to optimize on-premises deployments with the latest cloud innovations.
