By Erik Frieberg, vice president, marketing, End-User Computing, VMware
As we look at how end-user computing has evolved over the course of 2014, a lot has changed. With several strategic VMware investments now in our rear-view mirror that offer innovative new solutions, our customers are already reaping the benefits of a transformed solution landscape as they evolve desktops into mobilized, virtual workspaces that can access every application they need, with simplicity and ease.
In 2014 we saw the introduction of VMware Virtual SAN, delivering a radically simplified approach to storage, offering much better performance with reduced TCO in support of desktop virtualization and other critical workloads. We also introduced VMware EVO: RAIL, our hyper-converged infrastructure appliance (HCIA), leveraging Virtual SAN and the Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) enabling true simplicity of infrastructure with the ability to go from power-on to VM creation in minutes. Then there was VMware App Volumes, enabling real-time application delivery with lifecycle management, as well as RDS hosted apps, delivering remoted apps with reduced infrastructure costs, wider access, and improved performance.
As you can see, this quickly reveals several paths of infrastructure simplification that we’ve aggressively invested in, to accelerate the ROI of desktop transformation.
So today, I’m excited to share three new updates that will help further simplify and drive down the cost of transforming desktops from traditional fixed systems to modern, mobile workspaces.
New VMware Horizon Add-On for VMware EVO: RAIL
First off, we are introducing a new VMware Horizon 6 add-on to VMware EVO: RAIL to enable partners and distributors to bundle the solutions together for more savings. We are especially pleased to collaborate with Dell Engineered Solutions in offering the EVO: RAIL with Horizon solution, tapping into Dell’s expertise in x86 systems, management, and hyper converged infrastructure, integrated with VMware.
With this combined solution, we are delivering new benefits for desktop and app virtualization implementers including:
- The ability to get started with VDI with as few as 25 seats, with the ability to grow to 1,000+
- A consistently great user experience, whether your users are at a large central office or at a remote branch office
- The ability to easily scale your environment by simply adding new EVO: RAIL appliances with predictable performance as seats are added
- A simplified all-VMware solution optimized for desktop and application virtualization
New Validation of NexentaConnect For VMware Horizon and EVO: RAIL
I’m also excited to announce today that Nexenta’s software suite, NexentaConnect is now validated across all VMware Horizon deployment scenarios including:
- Standalone software deployment
- Converged infrastructure
- On top of VMware Virtual SAN
- As part of EVO: RAIL hyper-converged platforms
The NexentaConnect, VMware EVO: RAIL, and VMware Horizon hyper-converged solution can now provide users day one access to a full VDI solution that includes virtual desktops, user profiles and access to data without the need for additional hardware. This validated architecture continues the joint approach at a software-defined VDI strategy between VMware and Nexenta. For more information, visit the Nexenta website or read the VMware – Nexenta solution brief.
New Innovations for VMware Horizon 6 In VMware Virtual SAN 6 and vSphere Virtual Volumes
As you might have already seen, VMware launched a new generation of enterprise storage solutions yesterday with Virtual SAN 6 and vSphere Virtual Volumes to enable mass adoption of software-defined storage. VMware Virtual SAN 6, introduces significant scalability and performance enhancements to the company’s award-winning hypervisor-converged storage solution, and VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes, will offer a new levels of storage integration to make third-party arrays natively aware of virtual machines.
What does this mean for VMware Horizon virtual desktops and applications?
It means that we are continuing to drive down the overall cost of acquiring and maintaining virtual desktops for any size organization. We will share updated cost-saving metrics in the coming weeks but looking at the cost-savings that are delivered by the older version of VMware VSAN, you can see that it lowers the cost of a virtual desktop to roughly the same as a physical PC (see diagram below).
With VSAN 6 combined with VMware Horizon and VMware EVO:RAIL, customers will have the simplicity of a converged appliance running virtual desktops while also enjoying the cost-savings from both solutions.
With VVOLs, we’re enabling simplified management and VM-level visibility into 3rd party storage. It let’s you extend the inherent simplicity of our solution stack to 3rd party storage solutions and makes available the same policy framework as VSAN and makes integration with Horizon simple for customers that choose partner storage systems.
The Whole Is Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts
As you can see, when customers invest in one VMware solution such as VMware Horizon, they get the benefits of the entire VMware platform. This is what sets us apart from the competition. VMware is the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure and purchasing one product provides customers with the cloud expertise that VMware has gained from its 15 years in the business.
