VMware Horizon

VMware Horizon is a virtual desktop and application delivery platform, originally developed by VMware and now offered by Omnissa following Broadcom’s divestiture of VMware’s end-user computing business. Organisations need to give employees secure access to Windows desktops and applications from many locations and devices, yet managing and securing large fleets of physical PCs is costly, and sensitive data stored on endpoints creates risk. Horizon addresses this by hosting desktops and applications centrally in the datacentre or cloud and delivering them to users over the network. Its core approach is to separate the user’s workspace from the device, so that IT teams can provision, update and secure desktops centrally while users receive a consistent experience whether they work from office PCs, laptops, thin clients, tablets or home computers, supporting remote and hybrid working at scale. In addition, this centralised model also simplifies compliance, business continuity and the onboarding of contractors and new staff.

Key capabilities include virtual desktop infrastructure with persistent and non-persistent desktops, published applications through Remote Desktop Session Host, instant clones for rapid provisioning, and the Blast Extreme display protocol for optimised performance, including support for graphics-intensive workloads and unified communications. Dynamic Environment Manager handles user profiles and policies, and App Volumes simplifies application layering and delivery. Horizon can be deployed on-premises on vSphere, in public clouds such as Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and VMware Cloud on AWS, or in hybrid configurations managed through a cloud control plane. Security features include integration with identity providers, multi-factor authentication, micro-segmentation and secure remote access through Unified Access Gateway. Horizon is widely used by enterprises, healthcare providers, financial institutions, educational institutions and government bodies. Pricing starts from around USD 3,116; there is no free trial or free version indicated in this listing.