Did you know…
VMware Fusion is a fantastic tool to have in your toolbox if you’re an IT Professional.
Why’s that you ask? Take a look at this video and find out…
VMware Fusion is a fantastic tool to have in your toolbox if you’re an IT Professional.
Why’s that you ask? Take a look at this video and find out…
Andy here again. I’m delighted to announce that Horizon FLEX 1.5 is now shipping. This update is huge. We’ve got server side improvements, client side improvements, probably even improvements in the bit that connects the two!
Sorry, I’ll try and be serious, this is after all a very big deal. It’s been just 6 months since we shipped Horizon FLEX 1.0, and less than 3 months since we shipped 1.1. This release adds many of the features you requested.
We’ve even improved the way you distribute the Horizon FLEX Clients, and added the ability to make a desktop shortcut for your virtual image. Your users are going to love this.
Watch the introductory video below to learn more.
To access the software, just sign in to your account and download it from either support or from the store.
Thank you.
It’s finally here, the day you’ve been waiting for, how to define a Horizon FLEX entitlement!
Hello, it’s Andy again. Today’s short video once again features a shiny me, but it’s thankfully very short: just over 90 seconds after you skip all the fancy bumpers we put at the front and back of it.
To recap, in part one I showed you how to build a Horizon FLEX compatible image. In part two, I showed you how to define acceptable use policy for groups of people. In today’s lesson, we’re going to take everything we’ve learned so far, sprinkle it with AD groups and build entitlements.
Entitlements are just the fancy way of saying that the people in accounting get access to a different image than the one you give the sales people, and those differing images can operate under different acceptable use polices.
The next section on the Horizon FLEX administrator’s console shows all the VM’s that are in use, what policies are being enforced, and even gives you the ability to tweak the settings for a specific user.
Bonus point! If you’re using VMware Mirage to manage your virtual images (and you really should) that information appears in the console too. Fantastic.
Next time, I think I might show you sometime I call my Russian Doll demo. It showcases why more people use VMware hypervisors than any other. It’s truly mind blowing.
Thanks and if you’d like to know more, or to download a free trial of Horizon FLEX, please click here.
Hello again, Andy here.
Last time I showed you how to build a Horizon FLEX image for mass sharing. This time, I’m going to show you the simple steps needed to ensure that image is securely used.
You’ll be happy to note that there’s significantly less of my shiny red face in this video.
The video concentrates on server controlled dynamic policies. At the time of writing there’s over half a dozen of them, but a customer was quick to correct me when I shared the video, saying ‘we enforce over 50 policies with FLEX ‘. He is right of course, there are lots of policy decisions you burn into the image at creation time.
The full list of FLEX polices is huge and varies depending upon the client hypervisor (in other words, your mileage may vary). Using a combination of fixed image and dynamic server policy an administrator can specify over 70 distinct control points.
Processor
Storage
Network
Hardware
User Experience
Recovery & Protection
Next time, I’ll show you how to easily combine AD, images and policy to give your users the desktop you want them to have.
Thanks and if you’d like to know more, or to download a free trial of Horizon FLEX, please click here.
Hi, I’m Andy from VMware.
Today I’d like to show you something exciting from VMware that may not have made it on to your radar – remotely managed policies for Fusion users!
Back in December we launched a new product called Horizon FLEX. The concept behind FLEX is simple, Fusion is fantastic for you on your Mac, but can be a little bothersome for the person responsible for rolling out 500 copies of it to everyone in sales, or worse, to your senior exec team.
Horizon FLEX matches AD credentials against your library of managed virtual images, makes them available to valid users, and then enforces best practice use policies. It’s incredibly simple for your users to use, and gives you peace of mind that your containerized desktops are secure, licensed, and being used by only the right people.
Here’s a 2 minute video of me sweating under the studio lights that should give you a flavor for what Horizon FLEX can do for you.
Great – that’s the marketing fluff out of the way, but I know as seasoned Fusion users you’re more interested in how different this is from the process you already have in place. So here’s another 2 min video that demonstrates the various steps.
One of things I don’t make clear in the video is ‘why are there two passwords?’ This is our cunning plan to give you extra flexibility. You see, the first password is used to encrypt the virtual machine image and needs to be given to the user in order for them to access the image. The second password is an IT-only security switch. Using this, you can remote into your users’ computer and change the VM settings that are normally out of their reach. It gives you the ability to fine tune the performance of a VM without having to open all the dangerous controls to users who probably won’t know the right way to use them.
Next time I’ll show you how to define that policy I mentioned.
Thanks for reading and if you’d like to know more, or to download a free trial of Horizon FLEX, please click here.