VMware Horizon 6- What is new in brief

VMware Horizon 6 is the latest and major version of VMware’s End-User Computing Solution (EUC) solution after Horizon View 5.3. 

(After implementing VMware Horizon view, verify the implementation with these test cases.)

What’s new in Horizon 6 in brief:

-          Application publishing - This is the major development

-          A unified workspace to deliver desktops and applications to end-user

-          VMware Virtual SAN(vSAN) support

-          Improved management and automation

-          Single image management support for physical and virtual desktops with mirage

-          Hybrid Cloud support including DAAS( Desktop As A Service)

Source: VMware

With Horizon 6, some if not all of the existing Citrix customers will decommission their Citrix infrastructure and rely on a single vendor i.e. VMware at some point for their Physical/ virtual desktops, application virtualisation, remote desktop sharing and last but not least virtualisation solutions. Obviously, it’s easy to coordinate with one vendor for all support issues for customers.

As per VMware, there will be three editions of VMware Horizon suite. VMware Horizon View Standard edition licenses will be sold as Concurrent user and for remaining two editions (Horizon Advanced/Enterprise), customers will have the option to buy as concurrent user or named user.

In brief, VMware Horizon license editions are as follows.

·         Horizon View Standard: Just VDI

·         Horizon Advanced: VDI, Applications, Virtual SAN (vSAN), Image management for physical and virtual desktops and unified workspace to present desktops and application to end-users

·         Horizon Enterprise:  In addition to Horizon View and Advanced features, it comes with advanced cloud features including hybrid cloud support, automation and management

I was just looking to download VMware Horizon 6 to try in the lab but realised that VMware hasn’t released installation media yet. I have been told that  VMware Horizon6 download will be available around the second week of May 2014.

I found the following comment on VMware website in regards to VMware Horizon Suite product End of Availability (EOA) so no more Horizon Suite.

VMware has announced the end of availability (“EOA”) of VMware Horizon™ Suite, effective on April 30th, 2014. No further orders for VMware Horizon Suite will be accepted after this date. Each product component of the Horizon Suite will continue to be supported per their individual lifecycle policies.

I’ll update this article when VMware Horizon 6 download available here.

Update: VMware Horizon6 GA (General Availability) postponed a few times, will update when we have further update.
Update (11th August 2014): It seems VMware has not yet released  VMware Horizon 6 GA download yet but if you want to try in the lab ( Evaluation), you can download VMware Horizon 6 here.
Update: Latest VMware Horizon 6.0.2 (with View) download is available here

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