XenTegra - On The Horizon

VMware Horizon is a virtualization software product for delivering desktops and apps on Windows, Linux, and MacOS systems. It is especially relevant today because so many of us are working remotely. Whether you’re a system administrator or a pizza deliverer, you need easy access to the apps and desktops that help you do your job. And you need that access to be secure.
Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Philip Sellers

VMware Horizon is a virtualization software product for delivering desktops and apps on Windows, Linux, and MacOS systems. It is especially relevant today because so many of us are working remotely. Whether you’re a system administrator or a pizza deliverer, you need easy access to the apps and desktops that help you do your job. And you need that access to be secure.
Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Philip Sellers
Co-host: Moin Khan

VMware is excited to announce that Horizon Cloud Service is now Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Impact Level 5 (IL5) authorized. This allows the Department of Defense and its branches to deliver virtual desktops and apps faster, more reliably, and more securely on premises and in Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure GovCloud. The announcement comes on the heels of our recent FedRAMP and StateRAMP High authorizations for Horizon Cloud Service, along with our NIAP compliance certification for Horizon 8.
Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Philip Sellers

Anddd that’s a wrap! This year at VMware Explore, our VDI track was full of great breakout sessions, tutorials, meet-the-expert sessions, and more. If you weren’t able to attend VMware Explore or the VDI sessions, you can watch them on demand from our VMware Explore video library. With all the news, announcements, and updates, you may need a quick recap. Here are the top five takeaways for all things VMware Horizon:
Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Philip Sellers
Co-host: Rizwan Shaikh

Having been here at VMware a year and drinking from a firehose to learn about all of our products, one of the things that really impresses me is what has been happening with App Volumes. Having been at Unidesk, the app layering company acquired by Citrix, I was keen to learn what was going on here.

I hadn’t looked at App Volumes 4 in-depth and most of my knowledge was still based in the 2.x platform. I was surprised at how much the “layering” had advanced and was really not traditional “app layering” or “App Stacks” anymore. Of course, since the beginning of App Volumes, VMware’s approach has been to focus on the apps and their delivery. This differs from Citrix App Layering, where to deliver apps, you must change your image management model and move everything to their app layering product. This includes OS management, vendor agents, antivirus, and of course, apps. For anyone that has done this in larger environments, you know the pain it can cause with the slowdown of the integration, cross-team issues, and politics.

VMware’s focus on app delivery has allowed us to continue to keep OS or image management separate from the apps (resulting in easier implementation) and allowed the applications to be added to desktops or servers as needed (giving greater flexibility in app deployment). In addition, our App Volumes teams are moving to a more holistic app management approach and beginning to individually address the applications in virtual disks. This does away with the “app stacking” requirements of the past while speeding up app delivery and execution.

With that in mind, today I’d like to take a look at three specific features that you need to look at when you evaluate app management tools in your virtual desktop environment. These three features, while simple and easy to understand, really show the emphasis that VMware is placing on improving your app management capabilities as well as integrating them with your existing tools.
Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Gabe Knuth
Guest: Ron Oglesby