Horizon 8 Reviews

Horizon basically protects you're VMware and your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). BYOD connecting to your network and these can be secured using VMware Horizon.

With COVID there is a very big impact. There is a hybrid kind of workforce model now. People will be able to connect using their own devices. If it is BYOD case, the number of assets is going to increase. It will almost double the number of the secured assets out there. This means that as the asset size grows, there's a lot of traffic. If you talk about the Horizon it is Zero Trust Architecture plus Micro-segmentation. It has to level both into one platform.

You then need to physically test that your endpoints are all secured so that there is no way for somebody connecting from their own device or laptop to accessing the network with any kind of malicious code. You're protected.

The solution is quite stable. The performance is good.

The scalability has been very good. It's easy to expand it to more endpoints.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

The solution could be more secure. Horizon is a recent addition in the sense that, due to COVID, we're working from home and those off-network devices also have to get secured. It's not only on-premises and the cloud infrastructure anymore. Your connectivity from the endpoints from the employees who are logged in from home also has to get brought in.

The solution isn't quite mature yet. It needs more time to mature and to get more market recognition.

The solution needs to work on its pricing. Compared to VMware Workspace ONE it should not be more in terms of cost.

I've been using the solution for more than four years.

The solution is stable. It offers good performance. There aren't crashes and it doesn't freeze. there aren't bugs or glitches. It's been good overall.

The scalability is excellent. If you need to extend it to more endpoints, it's possible to do so, and it's not difficult in terms of a process. If a company needs to expand the offering, it can do so with ease.

We have a hybrid workforce, with 8,000 or so users who likely have both their work and home devices on the system.

We do plan to continue to use the product going forward. We have no plans to move away from it.

Our end-user support is our level end-user computing, EUC. EUC is a separate kind of support model, and there is dedicated support if we run into issues. So far, we have been satisfied with the level of support.

VMware worked with Workspace One, which has been upgraded into Horizon.

The initial setup is not overly complex. It's easy. It's a part of the VMware Workspace segment which makes it quite simple. A company should have no issues with the implementation.

Normally, the process from beginning to end only takes a couple of hours. It's a pretty quick process.

For maintenance, we have a team called EUC - End User Computing - that inspects all the upgrades and handles all the maintenance.

I handled the process of implementation myself. If did not need an outside consultant or integrator. We were able to manage everything in-house.

There is a good ROI.

We do have a licensing fee that we need to pay. Horizon is expensive if you were to consider EDR. I cannot speak to the exact cost of the product, however.

EDR itself is a big investment. If you're investing in EDR be prepared to pay a bit. There are two platforms that we are using - Windows and Linux. In the Windows platform, basically, we can secure it using the Windows Defender. In the case of Windows Defender, we don't need any separate EDR. For Linux, however, we need it. That said, mostly the users are all Windows users. More than 60% to 70% of the users are Windows users and so we don't need the EDR product across the board. That saves some costs for us.

I did evaluate multiple EDRs before choosing this solution.

We use the latest version of the solution at this time. It's the most up-to-date option.

From the COVID impact, the number of vulnerabilities has gone up. That means there are other challenges of coping with the security in recent times due to the deluge of more assets, basically, made on one level because people are bringing their own devices into the mix. So far, we've been able to secure everything, and we've been able to stand back and say that we're fine and, even with this new hybrid work model, we are secure and back to normal, so to speak.

The solution is a recent edition that is not been fully adopted and it is still slightly immature. It's not reached a stage where it is saturated. For that reason, I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.  

I would recommend the solution.

It is a method of providing a user with access to centralized resources in the form of either a full desktop session or a hosted application, whether it is Windows or Linux.

Horizon is known for its simplicity, security and flexibility in its deployment. It allows for simplified management, advanced user configuration and apllication deployment, all at speed and at scale.

The most valuable feature of this solution is secure remote access to resources.

A simple way to load-balance components has been missing for several years. Because VMware Horizon lacks a load-balancing component, you must always use a third-party solution. VMware recommends that since you have VMware vSphere underneath, you run NSX to get your load balancer from there. However, not every customer can afford to run NSX.

A simple way, particularly for smaller environments, would be to have load balance connection servers and unified access gateways would be extremely beneficial.

The backlog of the development team is extensive. We know the load-balancing is in the roadmap somewhere but it's unknown when it will get addressed.

I would like to see simple load-balancing for smaller environments that lack large solutions like F5, or NSX; it should be redundant or unavailable but in a simple way.

Perhaps limited to only two components; if more are required, a paid load balancing solution can be used.

Load balancing for simple environments, or simple redundancy, is sorely lacking.

I have been working with VMware Horizon for approximately eleven years.

The first one I sold was version four.

We are working with version eight, and our customers run version seven and some are already on version eight. 

Version seven is already out of support.

The most recent version is 8.11, but they no longer use that numbering; it is now 2312. The new numbering reflects the month and year of release.

The stability of VMware Horizon is incredible for both Horizon version seven and version eight.

The only reason the basic component connection server failed was that there was something broken underneath, either storage or compute. Horizon itself rarely has any issues.

At present, VMware Horizon scales up to 250,000 concurrent sessions.

In my opinion, VMware Horizon is a very scalable product. The most prominent companies in the world use it. Some require it to scale to that level, which is why it is capable of doing so.

I would rate the technical support a three and a half out of five. 

It has become a very large organization with many procedures and layers. It usually takes a long time to get to the right person who can actually solve your problem, if you get there at all.

I was better in the past, but it was also smaller, and that would have made it easier.

The response times are not an issue, but you must go through a couple of layers, especially if you have a more complicated problem, to get the right person involved. It takes time.

The future with KKR is uncertain, due to the fact that EUC has now split up and has left VMware/Broadcom. It could be very positive, as it will now be a focused group that only supports the EUC stack.

It can be deployed in your private cloud, a public cloud, or a hybrid of the two. 

VMware Horizon only has one license, which is a license to run desktops. They don't care if you run them on Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba, your own Data Center, or a combination of those.

There is a cloud platform included to be able to govern it, the Horizon Cloud Console.

The initial setup is dependent on what you compare it to. 

When referring to an on-premises installation, the infrastructure isn't that complex; otherwise, it's just the cloud, which is a service that you use, and that is not necessarily complex.

On-premises you have some components, and there is some designing involved, especially if the environment is medium to large.

The complexity is in your data, and your applications, not in VMware Horizon.

A PoC is set up in a couple of days.

The basic environment depends on the organization; for example, a complete infrastructure for a large company can take two weeks to set up. You are dealing with a lot of integration with other components, and setting up load balancers and certificates.

It is worth the investment. We have customer success stories about how great VMware Horizon is as a product and how it has solved problems for them.

One of the things I try to do as an architect is to give or provide the customer with a solution that actually fits.

There are numerous methods for delivering a digital workplace to you; it does not have to be a virtual desktop; there are other options.

I am aware of the license models, but not the prices. There are multiple licensing options, please refer to Understanding Horizon Licenses (87490) (vmware.com) for more information.

Our company became a VMware partner because they already had Airwatch as a very large product, and VMware purchased Airwatch.

We then did some Digital Workspace and complimented it with Horizon. We do infrastructure as well as network virtualization.

I would advise using a trial first. You can use a free trial version for 60 days for almost every VMware product that is available. Register for a trial, download the bits and you are ready to go. For two months you can spend some quality time to see if the solution is what you need.

There are also the VMware hands-on labs that VMware provides. 

VMware provides live labs that you can use. They are built on request just by clicking a button and one minute later you have an environment that you want to get acquainted with.

It allows you to open the console, change the configuration and do whatever you want, and when you are done, the lab gets destroyed and rebuilt for another person free of charge.

It's a friendly way to get to know a product and to get acquainted with the look and feel to see if it is something that would fit with your environment. Then you could try a trial in your environment.

I would rate VMware Horizon an eight out of ten. 

It is a complete product.

It is fully mature, easy to manage, and it is easy to design if you know what you are doing. 

It is stable and there are new features that come from the new release twice a year.

Our current use of the solution involves the two specific projects in Arreaspace Kiasat, which involves catering to both the needs of the client and the server's functionalities with a Linux based approach.

The most valuable feature in this solution which really helped for my use case was the stand out three dimensional acceleration. It was really important for enhancing the performance for certain clients based on their scenarios.

We have used VMware Horizon since 2021.

The stability is also reliable and the solution gives a very constant performance with a rating of 8 out of 10.

In our case, the scalability is average as it serves its purpose effectively but only caters to the needs of 100 clients only, so I will rate it 5 out of 10. Horizon is best suited for enterprise level companies especially considering the benefits in terms of pricing as VMware is now under Broadcom's ownership.

I am incapable of providing direct feedback on the tech support of VMware as we have channelized our support to the first line through Fujitsu, our OEM.

Compared to competitors, Horizon outperforms Citrix in recent years due to Citrix facing security issues. As an alternative, when cost is a concern, we occasionally turn to the open-source solution Waccamola, although it lacks the extensive functionalities of Horizon.

Pricing for Horizon is relatively high, earning a rating of one out of ten.

Overall, the solution itself deserves a solid seven to eight rating out of 10.

Our organization is a national cybersecurity agency in Qatar, and we need virtual machines that automatically erase once the user logs out. The solution also enables access to our organization's secured environment through the Internet. For instance, you can be anywhere in the world and still access the on-premises infrastructure securely. 

Once our organization upgraded to the latest version of VMware Horizon, we eliminated the delayed login times we had faced in the prior version. The USB redirection is one of the valuable features of VMware Horizon.

Using the aforementioned feature, I have allowed access to certain types of USB models, and only these authorized models by the employer are accessible in the VDI environment, therefore any USB outside the whitelisted manufacturers won't function in our organization's environment. 

I also find the solution's Unified Access Gateway (UAG) feature useful as it makes administration tasks easier. For instance, if I want to enable a particular network device to access VMware Horizon, UAG makes such processes quick and easy.

At our organization, we are also using VMware Workspace ONE for endpoint management, which facilitates the employees' ability to bring their own devices, which can be used to access the on-premise infrastructure and the applications present on it. 

There are some licensing issues in VMware Horizon, but I believe that the vendor will be able to resolve them soon. Our agency is used to traditional licenses, and when Broadcom acquired the product, they made some changes in the licensing. In the long term, the latest product licensing model might be more beneficial. 

I have been using VMware Horizon since 2018. 

I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. 

I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten. The solution can be effortlessly scaled unless and until there are issues with the on-premise infrastructure. Presently, our organization has 2,500 VMware Horizon users. 

Our agency has production support from VMware, but there have been very few instances where we needed to reach out to customer support, which were some rare issues that our team couldn't troubleshoot on their own. Only in instances similar to zero-day vulnerabilities did our agency contact customer support. I would rate the customer support a ten out of ten. 

Positive

Previously in our agency we were using SCCM from Microsoft but VMware Horizon is easier to manage. But both aforementioned vendors have some interdependence when deploying either of their products. For instance, when you want to deploy VMware Horizon you need to use some Microsoft products such as Active Directory and DNS. For end users in our agency, we use Microsoft products and for applications, Linux servers are used. 

The initial setup process is extremely simple, you just need to run the domain controller and active directory and the rest of the setup is related to network communication. The clear and concise documentation from VMware Horizon further assists in the seamless setup process. Any professional with a couple of years of experience in system administration can effortlessly deploy the product. 

VMware Horizon and other products from the vendor are not aimed at small businesses; it's rather ideal for mid-scale and enterprise businesses. VMware Horizon can be considered to be slightly expensive. 

The solution's instant clone technology is used in our organization, which facilitates the auto-deletion of machines once the user logs out. Upon logging in again, a new machine with a new hostname is assigned. 

VMware Horizon can be easily integrated with other tools due to the presence of effective documentation that is easy to access and comprehend. The employees and the end-users of our agency are highly satisfied with the product. 

VMware Horizon supports both on-prem and VDI cloud-based deployment models. I would rate the product a ten out of ten. I would definitely recommend the solution to others, especially for every VDI use case. 

I use VMware Horizon as a VDI software since I use a workstation where access is needed for the virtual desktop.

The benefits of the product stem from the fact that it is cheaper for a company when a user accesses the workstation with the help of Linux. It is possible to set up a workstation with the help of a Linux system, after which its users can only access Linux within their Windows system.

The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is easy to set it up, and the user experience it provides is just like a normal desktop.

I don't know what needs improvement in the product since it is a standard system, and that is okay.

The product fails to support Mac or Apple workstations. The product should be able to support Mac or Apple workstations, like how it supports Windows and Linux.

The UI of the solution needs improvement, and there is a need to upgrade some of the systems in our environment to ensure better IOPS on our systems. Presently, the IOPS rate is lower than usual for our systems, which might be because of the hardware we use in our company.

I have been using VMware Horizon for more than three years. I work with the old version of the product.

Most of the tool's users are not really satisfied with the product, and I guess that the solution was mostly used for development purposes.

It is a scalable solution. If users want more memory, they can add memory automatically or add more disk space if required.

Our company only has 10 or 20 users of the solution. Earlier, we had hundreds of users of the product in our company.

Proxmox is an open-source solution that I use. Compared to VMware Horizon, Proxmox is a free and open-source solution for which there is no need to pay anything toward the licensing charges. Compared to Proxmox, VMware Horizon is a more stable tool.

The product's onboarding process consisted of a simple installation process.

The solution provider took care of the product setup phase.

There is no maintenance required for VMware Horizon, and all a user has to do is upgrade the solution whenever required. The product notifies its users of the upgrades that it provides.

Google Workspace is a good alternative to VMware Horizon Horizon. Google Workspace functions as a cloud-based product. Users who want a solution deployed on an on-premises model can opt for VMware Horizon.

I rate the overall tool an eight out of ten.

My company had deployed the solution for one of our customers earlier, and they still use it to date with around 6,000 users and 2,000 virtual desktops.

Compared to Citrix, which is one of VMware's main competitors, VMware Horizon View is easy to manage on top of the VPN connections and, owing to the integration it allows with the VPN part, makes up for some of its main features. With VMware Horizon View, the configuration, deployment, manageability, VMware vRealize Operations Manager, and everything else is much better in my experience.

With VMware Horizon View, we could deliver it without any issues and meet the current requirements of our company's customers. The integration part and other such areas are present in the solution. If it can manage or if a user can integrate VMware Horizon View with thin clients or zero clients, then a user can have a single pane of glass for managing both the physical and the virtual environment then it could be a good addition since it is one of the only areas where the product lacks.

The technical support offered by VMware is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required.

I have been using VMware Horizon View since 2011.

As the product runs on VMware vSphere, my company has not faced any issues with it, and it has been very stable. The only issues my company faced with the product were related to storage and performance issues.

It is a very scalable solution.

My company deals with four customers who use the solution.

With the technical support team, sometimes my company faces some issues, especially when we try to contact the customer support team of VMware. The quality of support service is not that good, especially if you compare it with the other products available on the market. Sometimes, there is a need for support in my company at midnight, and then we realize that the support team of VMware operates in another time zone.

The product's initial setup phase was neither very straightforward nor too complex.

I deployed the solution some time ago, and since then, we have had to keep upgrading the solution in my company. The deployment process doesn't take more than a week or a week and a half for VMware Horizon View deployment in the whole infrastructure.

The deployment itself is not too complex, but the planning part needs to be done properly. In our company, we plan our user groups, use cases, and everything else, including the area related to storage sizing. Deployment-wise, I don't see much complexity.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

My company deals with customers who use both subscription-based and perpetual licenses. For long-term use, perpetual licenses are more cost-effective, and for short-term use, subscription-based would be more cost-effective. Price-wise, I would say that VMware Horizon View's prices are comparable to that of Citrix, but Horizon View comes with some underlying licenses.

I recommend the solution to those who plan to use it.

VMware Horizon View is a very good product, especially if I compare it with other products, like Citrix. As a product and solution, VMware Horizon View is good.

I recommend to those who plan to use the solution to take care of the planning part related to the product, and before you use the solution, you need to identify the use cases for which the solution will be used. When it comes to VMware Horizon View, the initial planning has to be perfect, without which there will be some difficulties.

I rate the overall tool a seven and a half out of ten.

We use this solution for delivering virtual desktops and applications.

Currently, we are using version 2006 which has an older model of provisioning and there are some compatibility issues that we are going to solve in the coming months. The latest version is 2103. However, there is not much difference between 2006 and 2103 it is almost the same.

The small differences are in adjunct functionality and regarding the transference relationship between domains. 

The benefits of this solution are that it is modern and it works perfectly well with the rest of the VMware environments we have. Having this vertical integration is what matters to us as an organization and this solution excels in this area. You deploy it and it works without much hassle.

The multimedia playback is not very good and they could improve it by increasing the quality.

In an upcoming release, there could be more integration support for Linux and better Linux user profile management. This is a feature we use in the universities but most other normal businesses will not be interested in Linux. 

I have been using this solution for approximately six years.

95% of the features work without any issues and 5% of them have issues that are normally difficult to pinpoint. However, since these small issues can normally be corrected by support, this solution's stability rating is high.

We have 5,000 users on the system but only 200 of them are using it together at the university. Scalability was not ever an issue.

We have contacted technical support and they have been responsive.

The initial setup is a moderate level of difficulty.

We did the implementation of the solution.

In my organization, we use a lot of VMware solutions for vertical integration and have evaluated other solutions, such as Citrix.

I would have said this solution needs to improve in profile management a couple of years ago because VMware does not have profile management that works out of the box. However, this issue was solved by Microsoft by releasing a solution that works very well with VMware Horizon.

Those who are wanting to implement this solution should consider the Cloud offerings for VMware Horizon. There is a possibility it could cut the time for delivery and it is more scalable. You will not have scalability issues.

I rate VMware Horizon 7 an eight out of ten.

In our case, it's for our own internal use. Let's say I am at home, and there's an issue with our customer. Something has happened. I can connect using Secureline and log on to this virtual desktop, accessing the system from there. So it's only for internal use.

From my standpoint, the desktop is the most valuable feature. 

What I would like to see improved is not so much about the product. It's more about how to get information about products. It's always too much sales pitching and fancy works and stuff. This helps you improve this and that but doesn't tell me how. 

It's just hard to find information when you want to set up a system or find what can be good for a specific customer. You want to find something. That's where the documentation comes in, and explains how it will improve. So that's my biggest problem with everybody who makes a product. 

It says this will make your life so much better. Yes, but how would it make it better? That's the hard part to find. That kind of information is hard to find, really. So it makes it hard to find products. 

Therefore, I always have to call the vendor and ask for a meeting, and they have to make a demonstration. The process becomes so lengthy and exhausting sometimes because you have to make notes for everything. "Okay, this works like this," and "You can use it for that." And then you have to talk to the next one, compare. So I would like that to be my opinion. If they could think from the perspective of a technician, he doesn't want to hear all this fancy talk. That's my opinion. 

I have been using this solution for over half a year. 

I've only used it a few times, and it was very stable. The performance was good.

About 15 of us in our organization are using the solution. Our current size is sufficient.

The initial setup is easy. It's a remote desktop, not that fancy. It's easy to manage with just one guy.

I have used Citrix. 

Overall, I would rate the solution a ten out of ten.