The solution is primarily used to manage VMs.
ICS Cybersecurity Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Easy to set up, perfect for building lab environments, and free to use
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup is very simple and straightforward."
- "VMware has purchased by Dell, they started to remove a lot of their support for non-Intel hardware and that's a bit of a problem. They dropped a lot of support for hardware that people commonly use and it just so happened that this hardware is not Intel. It makes it difficult to get assistance."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
.
What is most valuable?
The free version of the solution is great. It's perfect for if you have to build lab environments.
What needs improvement?
They need to improve the stabilization process of major releases.
Buyer's Guide
Horizon 8
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Horizon 8. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
Few years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability can be an issue when new versions are released.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
N/A: I use the solution for a lab environment.
How are customer service and support?
As a free product, they do not offer technical support. Therefore, when I use it, I am on my own and I do my own troubleshooting.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Some Virtual Box - I prefer VMware
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not difficult or complex. It's a very easy process. A company shouldn't have trouble with the implementation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This product is free to use.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Jul 1, 2015
It controls what application a user will see in his/her desktop, but it blocks AppStack applications.
I was talking to my colleague Sven Huisman this morning and the discussion got to App Volumes and VMware UEM. We both are running some PoC's right now and are experiencing some rather interesting facts about both products.
There is one feature that I experienced before that I thought should be shared with you out there. It's something they need to work on, it's fairly simple but if it's not implemented in UEM soon, the combination with App volumes is rather useless.
Let me explain myself...
UEM
UEM is implemented to control what application a user will see in his/her desktop, this among other user profile controlling features is the core business of UEM.
App Volumes
App volumes is implemented to stop the image sprawl so you don't need 10 VDI golden images to conquer your ever demanding organization, you built one and add AppStack per department.
The marriage
The marriage took place the minute VMware acquired VMware UEM, both products suddenly are bonded, in good and in bad times until death do us part.
So what happens when you have a desktop that is controlled by UEM and you add an AppStack? Let me walk you through this.
- You logon to the desktop
- UEM kicks in and setup your desktop following the configuration you created
- App Volumes integration with the Connection server kicks in and connects to AppStack to your desktop
- You see all you apps that are installed in the image and all other settings like printers and drive mappings.
You won't however see your AppStack applications, they are there but UEM is still blocking them. The logon task of VMware UEM is happening before the AppStack is connected, the integration with the connection broker works for App Volumes but not yet for VMware UEM.
Can be tune this?
I've been playing around with it and there are a few way to get your applications available. One option is to click refresh yourself but that is of course the last option you want to give your users.
There are a few trigger available that you could use;
There is however no trigger for added AppStack and and haven't yet found a way to create something to run after logon that would do a refresh.
I created a unlock task that runs on the unlock trigger and chose UEM Refresh there. That one works for instantly after I unlock my desktop the apps are there.
I also added a scheduled task to do a refresh but again it's not really the way to go.
I think that VMware needs to add a little bit of integration here and ask the guys from Immidio to add a trigger called AppStackArrival.
If you found a great manageable way to do this, please let me know.. looking forward to it.
p.s. without UEM, App volumes will show you the applications instantly, just when you add UEM you add management on a different level that for now hurts me.
Update 5th June 2015 11:02: My co-worker Sven Huisman was digging a bit deeper and focused on AppVolumes to solve this issue. He found another workaround to solve this, this is a more workable workaround. Read about it here.
It does not solve it, the integration has to come from UEM detecting the AppStack or AppVolumes notifying UEM that it is doing something. It's at least a workable solution for now, now it's up to VMware.
Originally published on blog.webernetz.net.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Horizon 8
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Horizon 8. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Engineer with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Apr 3, 2013
Allows for the creation of linked clone VM pools
Easy to maintain, responsive support, straightforward to deploy
Pros and Cons
- "It is easy to maintain."
- "User profiles are something that needs to be improved."
Systems analyst at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Good interface, configuration, pricing and support
Pros and Cons
- "We are happy with the interface, configurations, pricing and support."
- "I would like to see the VDP or other features for backing up the VMs."
Chief Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Performs well, good functionality, and reliable
Pros and Cons
- "The solution has good performance and functionality. However, if the network connection was poor we noticed a decrease in performance."
- "The installation is complex and could be easier. The full installation with testing took a couple of weeks to complete."
IT Site Support IV at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
Deploying desktops without needing access to the hardware is very helpful, but different client versions can be problematic.
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Updated: November 2024
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From my point of view, Horizon View has three main pros: first pro is the new HTML5 client with Blast, which allows Horizon to deliver full desktops to users' browsers and it has a touchscreen interface. Second pro is that the platform uses space efficiently through the SE Sparse disk format and provides native platform graphics processing unit support for 3D graphics acceleration. Third pro is that it features AppShift technology, which introduces gestures and UI changes that make it easier to use Windows and Windows desktop applications on touch-based devices and support for the Nvidia Virtual Graphics Platform and Microsoft Lync communicator.