VMware Horizon Suite to launch in Q1

VMware

VMware has confirmed that its Horizon Suite of workforce mobility products will be available to buy during the first quarter of 2013 at a cost of 204 per named user.

The product suite includes updated versions of VMware's View and Mirage software that have been bundled together with a new VMware product called Horizon Workspace.

The latter provides end users with a browser-based virtual workspace that can be used to access their data, apps and desktops.

IT administrators can also use this part of the suite to set security and data access policies.

The View update has, reportedly, improved the software's usability with Microsoft Lync and made it easier for IT admins to manage larger virtual desktop deployments. The product can also be used to deliver a Windows desktop to iPad users.

Mirage has also received a similar tweak, which allows IT managed Windows images to run on non-Windows devices, and now boasts application layering features that let apps be grouped together and rolled out to specific groups of users.

The products are all available to buy separately on a per user basis, with View costing 170, Mirage 102 and Workspace 102.

Alternatively, the entire Horizon Suite will set users back 204 per named user.

The virtualisation giant announced a beta launch of the product suite at VMworld 2012 in October last year, but has also been drip-feeding information about some of its other features to users over the past 18 months.

Brian Gammage, chief market technologist of end user computing at VMware, said the company has taken its time with the product suite's release to help people incorporate it into their environments.

"What's important in the world of end user computing is that you make the right decision [to ensure] the product you're bringing to market is robust, reliable and does what you need," he told IT Pro.

"It's sometimes difficult to give advance warning of what's coming down the line, but no-one deploys EUC tech in a rush, because they know if they deploy in haste, but they'll have years to repent."

Caroline Donnelly is the news and analysis editor of IT Pro and its sister site Cloud Pro, and covers general news, as well as the storage, security, public sector, cloud and Microsoft beats. Caroline has been a member of the IT Pro/Cloud Pro team since March 2012, and has previously worked as a reporter at several B2B publications, including UK channel magazine CRN, and as features writer for local weekly newspaper, The Slough and Windsor Observer. She studied Medical Biochemistry at the University of Leicester and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism at PMA Training in 2006.