VMware Horizon Integration – How the Pieces Fit Together, Part 4

By Anthony Rizzo, Staff End-User-Computing Technologist, VMware

This series discusses the concept of VMware Horizon 6.2 and VMware Horizon Air Desktops and Horizon Air Apps as a flexible end-user-computing tooling system.

Part 1 of VMware Horizon Integration – How the Pieces Fit Together reviewed the main ideas behind this concept.

Part 2 of VMware Horizon Integration – How the Pieces Fit Together covered key characteristics of end-user-computing centralization with secure and remote access.

Part 3 of VMware Horizon Integration – How the Pieces Fit Together examined the mapping of business requirements to VMware product-set features for tooling end-user-computing solutions.

This part concludes the series with an explanation of how the products in the VMware End-User-Computing portfolio can be combined and adapted to form solutions that meet your needs. Reference architectures and other very useful tools are provided at the end of this blog post to educate you further.

What Are VMware End-User-Computing Product-Sets and Products (Tool Sets and Tools)?

The following terminology differentiates products from product sets. The table illustrates the relationship between them.

VMware End-User-Computing product sets – Groupings of end-user-computing products that add functionality for Desktop Virtualization, Desktop Containerization, or Physical Desktops. Product sets can be combined to form a single solution.

VMware End-User-Computing products – Independent software components that form VMware End-User-Computing product sets.

Solution Examples

The following examples are not intended to detail every possible tooling combination. Instead, they highlight the flexibility of the VMware End-User-Computing portfolio. Consider the following example scenarios.

Scenario 1 – Mobile Workers

Scenario 1 illustrates mobile and office workers. Regardless of the worker’s location or device, they must use corporate, Windows-based applications to access customer records. Both mobile and in-office access must ensure the privacy and security of customer data.

In the office, workers use Windows-based applications inside virtual desktops to keep data secure.	When visiting customers in the field, consultants bring their iPads (iOS) for mobility and need secure access to Windows-based applications.	RDS-hosted applications provide the same secure Windows application experience to thin-client and iPad users VMware Identity Manager securely presents RDS-hosted applications from a common portal on any device Non-Windows users do not have to learn anything new Administrators do not have to manage different versions of the applications

Variation 1a
To simplify administration, App Volumes can help to automate the population of RDSH application pools and keep applications up to date. Because ThinApp packages are post-install images of applications, you can eliminate lengthy and repetitive application installations by combining ThinApp packages with RDSH and App Volumes.

Variation 1b
For temporary deployments, it makes sense for Horizon Air Apps to host the RDSH applications, eliminating the need to invest in long-term architecture for short-term projects.

Scenario 2 – Stateless Desktops

In Scenario 2, IT administrators need to maintain a small-scale infrastructure for workers in rotating shifts. Virtual desktops must instantly provide workers with applications tailored to their role, and with the ability to customize these applications. To keep the infrastructure small, CPU, memory, and other virtual desktop resources must be instantly recycled and customized for the next shift.

When a user signs in, View in VMware Horizon 6 assigns a fresh, simple, unused virtual desktop to the user.	VMware App Volumes instantly delivers user-specific applications to the virtual desktop. VMware User Environment Manager instantly delivers user-specific customizations to the virtual desktop.	The user now has a complete virtual desktop with administrator-assigned applications and customization information from their prior sessions. Upon logout, customizations and applications are dismounted from the virtual machine. The virtual machine is then discarded.

Variation 2a
What if Mac users want secure access to Windows-based applications without first opening a virtualized desktop? You can set up an RDSH application pool in View, then use App Volumes to deliver applications to the application pool. By using an HTML5 browser or a Horizon Client loaded on the Mac, you can offer secure Windows applications directly to Mac users—or to users with any device.

Variation 2b
Take it a step further. Offer a common RDS-hosted application experience to users on any devices. All you need is VMware Identity Manager as the interface to both virtualized desktops and RDS-hosted applications.

Flexibility Is the Key
As you can see, the VMware End-User-Computing portfolio is powerful enough to tool for current needs, and flexible enough to re-tool quickly as needs change.

What Have You Learned in This Blog Series?

• The VMware End-User-Computing portfolio (including Horizon 6.2, VMware Horizon Air Desktops, and Horizon Air Apps) is a flexible system for tooling, and re-tooling, end-user-computing business solutions.
• Centralization and secure cross-platform access is an important part of end-user-computing solution flexibility.
• Clear requirements and constraints are critical to a well-planned end-user-computing solution. Skilled engineers need to be involved in building and planning integrated solutions.
• VMware and VMware partners can help.
• With clear requirements, and appropriate skills, you can combine VMware End-User-Computing products into solutions that fit virtually any end-user-computing need. These integrated and flexible solutions can be easily adapted as needs change.

What to Do Next

1. Have your engineering staff review the following courseware, documentation, and reference architectures to improve their skills at tailoring VMware End-User-Computing tools to your business.
2. Contact a VMware representative to explore how VMware End-User-Computing tools and next generation end-user-computing architectural concepts can help your business.

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