Horizon 8 Reviews

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.

VMware Horizon View is easily scalable. Its onboarding is easy and comes with flash provisioning features. 

We would like to see better performance with the product. 

I rate the tool's stability an eight out of ten. 

I rate VMware Horizon View's salability a nine out of ten. My company has more than 3000 users. We continue to onboard around 20-30 percent of new users. 

I rate the tool's initial deployment an eight out of ten. Deployment takes two to three hours to complete. It is a simple OEM SOP. You need around two resources to complete the deployment. 

We did VMware Horizon View's deployment in-house. 

VMware Horizon View pricing is high compared to other solutions. I rate it two out of ten. Its licensing costs are monthly. 

It is better to go for AVD on a private cloud than a public one since private clouds are expensive. I rate the solution a five out of ten. 

In my previous project, we used Horizon to connect three remote offices with the main headquarters for centralized business applications.

It's centralized and secure, making it great for business.

There is room for improvement in support. The response time could be faster.

Configuration and driver support could be simplified. Integrating profiles with Active Directory [AD] is still complex.

I have experience with this product for five to six years. I have worked with v5, v6, v7 and v8.

It is a very stable product.

We can upgrade it and even add new features. So, it is a scalable product.

There are delays. When you're stuck, they answer the call and find someone, but resolving the issue might take one or two days.

Neutral

We used Citrix in non-production environments. But for production, we prefer VMware.

As a technical expert, it was easy to implement. I have a technical background spanning over 17 years. 

But for someone less experienced, it could be trickier, especially setting up client-side agents and drivers and integrating with AD services. But those issues can be fixed. So, deployment is easy.

The pricing depends on the use cases. It depends on the company's needs and budget. For us, it was okay, not too expensive.

Our company is a vendor for over 200 clients. We specialize in migrating infrastructure, on-prem data centers, Hyper-V, VMware, Boxmark, Citrix, any platform, any server, any application database, Oracle, Postgres, SQL Server, EDS, and anything. We move it all to Azure for replication, backup, and high availability.

Just find the right vendor. Check for local experts and certified vendors. You might need their technical help later.

Local vendors usually have technical guys and certified experts who can help with any scenario. I've dealt with upgrades and daily issues for over six years now.

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

We are currently using the solution to engage with our procurement team in a secure manner. If someone uploads tenders using their PC, they can copy the tender to other devices. Using the solution helps restrict access to users. The users' actions are also recorded in the solution.

It is easy to navigate through the product. The product makes it easier for us to manage the user’s expectations. The solution is seamless and easy to use. We can choose to use either the web or the client. We can integrate the solution with other tools using Active Directory.

The product has to improve its performance and connectivity. The product should add security features.

I have been using the solution for four months.

I rate the product’s stability a nine out of ten.

I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten. We are planning to onboard around 200 to 1000 users.

It is easy to get support for the solution.

Positive

The initial setup is complicated. I rate the ease of setup a six out of ten. Once the setup is done, everything else is smooth.

The deployment takes two to three months. We need to ensure that all the connectivity and the firewalls are properly configured. If we want to deploy the product, we should have a few prerequisites from VMware. If given to us early, we can deploy the solution very fast. VMware helps us deploy the product.

I am using the latest version of the solution. If we want to integrate with the authentication provider, we should not need any additional servers. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

In VDI, the primary benefit is providing users with a better environment than their endpoint machine by hosting their virtual machines in the server environment, improving performance. However, application virtualization becomes more appealing if specific resource requirements exist for the endpoint. Multiple users can benefit by using dedicated GPU resources, saving resources compared to individual dedications in VDI setups. VMware resources can be efficiently shared among various users in application virtualization, offering significant advantages over traditional VDI implementations.

VMware offers a friendly environment, and it's easy to provide the user with the package. It is a bundled solution that is readily deployable. The advantage lies in its simplicity, it requires minimal expertise. There are instances where Microsoft RDP outperforms due to its integration with the backend operating system. Yet, deploying and managing a Microsoft environment necessitates a specific skill set, typically that of a knowledgeable system administrator. 

On the other hand, Horizon offers a more user-friendly experience; you can quickly deploy applications, access simple documents, and navigate without needing specialized expertise. Additionally, comprehensive support and documentation are readily available to aid in setting up the Horizon environment.

The primary concern lies with licensing. There’s confusion regarding licensing terms following the new management’s takeover. Consequently, our resellers and distributors are confused. The SKUs have been altered. We had planned to include budgetary prices in our upcoming budget, which ends in June. However, during the budget repricing process, the resellers faced difficulties due to their inability to obtain responses regarding the budgetary code. The SKUs have changed due to the transition from one principal to another. 

I have been using VMware Horizon for two to three months.

There has been no downtime in the last four months. Some administrative complexities exist, but they were resolved after learning from the documentation.

The solution’s scalability is good. We require hardware that can scale accordingly. We are beginning with 50 users and scaling out over the next two years.

The initial setup takes a couple of hours, maximum. Everything requires a little knowledge. When it comes to deploying VMware Horizon, some understanding is necessary. Initially, I was confused about which documentation tool to use. I studied by myself and found the documentation provided very good and clear. Then, I deployed it.

When I found the documentation, learning and deploying VMware Horizon took a couple of days.

Initially, I had to test VMware vSphere, configure a Windows Virtual Machine and deploy the Horizon server. After that, we connected, integrated, and tested vSphere and vCenter with Horizon.

I have one vSphere server installed. On that server, I have configured virtual machines for application publication. Additionally, I have two Windows 10 virtual machines for endpoints, which will be provided to the end users. They will log in to the Windows 10 virtual machine, where the published applications will be installed. Initially, we'll start with three users at a time.

According to the technical documentation, they are apparent and easily accessible.

From one point of view, VMware Horizon uses virtualization configurations deployed on Microsoft servers, necessitating compliance with Microsoft's rules. It relies on Microsoft RDP services in the background. One beneficial feature is publishing applications installed on a Windows 10 machine.

You should check whether they aim to provide a VDI environment, and then the VDI option is best. However, GPU usage becomes crucial if they intend to centralize application solutions to conserve server resources. If assigned to a single-user PC, GPUs are hardware resources that might need to be more utilized when the user is not actively using them. Therefore, the optimal approach would be to install all the applications on a server, allocate the necessary hardware resources, and then share them using application virtualization.

There are only two or three products that meet this requirement. It is a very reliable and stable product. On the contrary, there is Microsoft Remote Desktop. These two are the best, both in terms of reliability and finding documentation.

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

We put our client-server applications on Horizon.

The product helped us deploy complex applications.

The product’s scalability makes the deployment easy. It is important to us. The product handles security and compliance in the virtual infrastructure well.

The tool is not future-proof anymore.

I have been working with the product for about ten years.

I have a good impression of the tool’s stability.

I have a good impression of the tool’s scalability. We have five users.

The initial setup is complex. It is not easy to deploy. It could be much easier. The vendor must build a SaaS solution. The deployment takes too long.

The license could be cheaper.

Everyone is working with Teams after COVID-19. Relatively, Teams is a bit better than VMware Horizon View. I believe there is no future for VMware Horizon View.

I will not recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.

We use the solution for the virtual desktop environment. Our customers are mostly from the financial sector. 

The solution's most valuable feature is low bandwidth consumption. It helps to improve user experience.  

VMware Horizon View needs to improve orchestration and integrate additional images. I would also like to see its statistics.

I have been working with the solution for eight years. 

I rate the solution's stability an eight out of ten. 

I rate the product's scalability an eight out of ten. My company has four financial enterprise customers using it. 

The technical team assigned someone promptly whenever we encountered any issues, and the issues were resolved. 

Positive

I rate VMware Horizon View's deployment a five out of ten. You must install different components to get it working, which is cumbersome. We completed the deployment in three to four days. Once the hardware is in place, you proceed to provision your password and select the components you want to use.

I rate the product's pricing a seven out of ten. Pricing can be an obstacle for smaller businesses. Pricing is fixed, and there are no additional costs. 

I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten. 

I work in a public school where some teachers and staff work from home. We use the product in the home office. 

I like the tool's security. It is also easier to roll out the software updates. 

I like VMware Horizon's ability and performance. 

VMware Horizon needs to integrate with Azure, Teams, and Zoom. 

I have been using the product for five years. 

I rate VMware Horizon's stability an eight out of ten. 

I rate the tool's scalability a nine out of ten. My company has over 150 users. 

We contact our partner for first-level support. 

I rate the tool's deployment a nine out of ten. It can be completed in a few hours. 

VMware Horizon is expensive. It should provide a special price for more user licenses. 

I rate VMware Horizon a nine out of ten.