VMware Horizon Reviews

We use this solution for virtual servers and virtual desktops. Our whole environment is on VMware combined with Nutanix.

I appreciate the ability to have a more centralized environment.

In the next release, I would like to have more support when optimizing the master templates for PDI. There are tools that are available to be used but they are not supported at the moment and are more, "use at your own risk."

I have been using this solution for more that fifteen years.

The performance was lacking a bit in the beginning due to the old infrastructure with SAN and having everything separated. Now that we use this in combination with Nutanix, it is quite stable.

We are easily able to add another house to the Nutanix farm which would result in more resources for VMware.

As a result of using VMware, we have to buy less hardware and do not need to replace thin clients.

I would advise potential users to create a template to test if the performance is good enough for your client level.

I rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Horizon actually has been working well in the current pandemic situation. Originally, we had clients deployed in our infrastructure. Now, once working from home or remote working has been imposed, we deployed a Unified Gateway. It's simply one more component of Horizon, and it allows us to give access over the public IP so that those people at home get the same environment itself as they work from their home without causing any user experience problems. There were no additional licenses required for that job either, which was nice.

I would love to see so they can actually allow the use of Linux, from a hosting environment as well as from a VDI client environment. If I can actually host Linux instances as VDIs with the same features as what I get on Windows and have all the key components, like the Composer, database, or the connection services, that would be ideal. Often, ransomware and attacks usually target Windows, therefore, if I'm on Linux, at least I'll have some level of comfort or a buffer against danger.

VMware Horizon was deployed around one and a half years ago in my infrastructure.

We do not have any problems with the stability part of it. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's not buggy and it doesn't have any glitches. It's reliable.

VMware is a hyper-converged infrastructure model. Therefore, for scaling it you just add more servers to it in the inputs. It's rather straightforward. 

We've had a couple of calls with technical support. They're very good, from what I have experienced. We are quite satisfied with their level of knowledge and responsiveness.

The initial setup is somewhat okay. They're not too complex. There are various components that have to be installed and configured, and therefore a little bit of expertise is required. It's not dead simple. You do need some background.

Ours was a smaller deployment and it's supposed to host around 800 different current virtual instances. Starting from the backend stack to going live, it took approximately two weeks overall.

It is more economical than purchasing each license individually. If you purchase vSphere Enterprise plus vSAN, then vROps, and then Horizon, it's going to be a large cost. If you do this logic, it will be very cheaper, because they did not charge us separately for the vSphere or vSAN or vROps with this. You buy the number of seats irrespective to how much hardware you run on, they will not charge you more. That's the benefit.

We aren't on the latest version of the solution. We're at minus one right now. The final upgrade has not been done due to the pandemic situation.

In our kind of environment, it's just more of a media use case, so we used it and it made sense. If you have variable workloads, not a uniform workload, then it might not go under the licensing for just VDIs, asVDIs specifically cover your operating system instances as well as uniform with the VDI clients. If it is a uniform VDI client, such as all Windows 10 systems for users to log in, like on host environment, or it's all a server farm, etc., for those kinds of environments, Horizon is a no brainer. 

A company should go for it. I'd recommend it. It is a good solution to work with.

Overall, I would rate the solution eight out of ten. For the most part, we've been quite satisfied with the results.

VMware Horizon 7 has its proprietary Elastic streaming protocol, which is very good for delivering VDI. It helps with graphic-intensive applications.

The experience is seamless for graphic-intensive applications using this particular protocol.

It's difficult to recall any areas that need improvement. 

They are growing now, in particular with this VDI domain. VMware is now introducing new products and features, and they are onboarding new customers.

There are many competitors in the market. All of the Media in Apple products delivery is seamless. 

They need to advertise the product well and focus on their core features. 

They need to market accordingly and they will have a good future and a good experience for the end customers.

I would like to see seamless integration with the cloud because right now, the dependency is on the cloud providers. I would like to see them have their own cloud environment on any public cloud. Right now, it is split between the public cloud and the VMware cloud environment. If they could deliver a solution that integrated all of the components then it would be great. They would not have to manage two different consoles but rather, a single implementation and a single console.

I have been working with VMware Horizon 7 for more than one year.

It's a stable solution.

It's easy to scale. Once you have it in your environment it's can be easily scaled.

Technical support is good.

The initial setup is straightforward.

If the customer already has a VMware virtualized platform then it's a seamless deployment.

Even the ordering and packaging is simple because it can be combined with the server virtualizing platform. You just order a one-part code that includes everything in that solution, including the VDI platform.

It can take approximately one week to deploy if it is on-premises, and if on the cloud, depending not the workload, it can take a day or two.

They have both options of deployment models. If it is on-premises, it's as per their proprietary prerequisite. With the cloud, they have AWS and Microsoft Azure.

I would recommend VMware Horizon 7 if the customer already has the VMware virtualized environment in place.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We essentially use it to enable remote workers.

The most valuable features are the ability to manage a great number of desktops at once and the remote access for users who are working from outside of the office or from a different office in the country.

The remote application features have some room for improvement.

I've dealt with Horizon 7 for as long as it has been out.

Its stability is great.

Its scalability is great.

Their tech support is good. It used to be better. It has dropped off a little bit, but it is good.

The initial setup of Horizon 7 (and Horizon 8) is fairly straightforward for the infrastructure. Getting the use cases for each desktop pool can be a challenge.

I don't know about the price. I know there are different tiers with the license, but I'm not sure exactly what it costs anymore.

I would advise defining your use cases before you start.

I would rate VMware Horizon 7 a nine out of 10.

We use this solution for virtual desktop infrastructure and remote desktop connections on client sites with 18 clients or end-user devices.

It is stable and easily scalable. 

The remote connection, bandwidth usage, and error connection can be improved. Working with the load balancer sites should also be improved. For example, with Horizon, we can use two clients with a one megabit connection, but with Citrix, we can use four or five clients with the same bandwidth through ICA protocol. VMware must improve remote connection, connection stability, and load balancing.

I have been using this solution for five or six years. 

VMware is stable. We don't need to switch after installation, but for one area, the connection stability is currently lower than other solutions. We tested it, and one connection from the load balancer or the firewall needs to be improved.

It is easily and quickly scalable and expandable. 

We are also Citrix Platinum partners. We are using Citrix solutions and desktop. When we create a project, we give our clients options and considerations between Citrix and VMWare. They choose after that.

For one building or two buildings that are nearby, or one local site, we prefer Horizon Seven. If end users are connected to VDI desktops or other Citrix services or if they are using a load balancer like NetScaler, for coming from outside to the inside of corporate, we are using Citrix VDI because of the ITA protocol.

The initial setup is quick and easy, but after that, you must configure user groups, machine groups, and delivery groups. It also requires some scripting and other tweaks, but the initial setup is easy for VMware Horizon.

The deployment duration depends on the number of users. For example, for 1,000 end users, you need redundancy servers for VMWare Horizon, and you need other servers for connecting to vCenter. Load balancing depends upon the client's sites. For example, for 10 users, I can make a connection locally in 45 minutes to one hour, but for 1,000 end users from different sites, it can take two to four days. If the complexity is high, it can take one month.

In terms of the staff required for deployment and maintenance, it depends on the end users and requirements on the customer site. I can complete installation myself, for example, of up to 100 users on one site. If more sites and more configurations are needs, it is a team job. It depends on the end users and customer expectations.

I would rate VMware Horizon 7 a seven out of ten. If it becomes stronger like the Citrix ICA protocol, it would easily be a ten.

I have integrated this solution for educational institutions to help deploy applications to students and staff. I have also integrated this solution for a financial organization. This solution is deployed on-premises. 

The students and staff have different requirements, knowledge, and applications they need to install, so we segregate the VDI. I have master images and then whichever application a student or staff member needs installed, I'll install it on the master image, then deploy that image to that particular staff member or group of students. In a matter of minutes, they will have their application ready to use.

The ease of deployment is one of the most valuable features. If I want to install something, I can have a test phase to see what sort of impact it will have and whether it will affect production. So I can install it on my lab, make sure it is okay, and if it is, I can deploy it directly to the users or to the staff. 

Instant clone is one of the best features. Within seconds, we can create a new WEM based on the requirements. So whenever they log in, the system or VM will be able to use it. 

VMware Horizon could be improved with more integration. It is also very costly for Enterprise Plus, which is a drawback. The renewal costs for the license are very, very high. 

I have been integrating this solution for customers for years. 

This solution is stable and reliable. I would say it's one of the best options. 

VMware's support is tremendously good. I have never had any issues with their side, in terms of technical support. They have a very talented team and they'll fix your problem in no time. 

The initial setup is not straightforward. You need to be very careful because it's based on end user experience, which is very important. You need to look at all the aspects of it—networking, cabling, storage, switching—and if performance is what most users need, there should be no compromise on this. You need to understand what your requirements are, what applications you may be running on the system, and then you need to design the storage. For example, if a customer has applications that demand more IOPS, then I would consider going for all-flash storage or an HTI solution, like Dell. Performance demands are very important and you need to consider all the levels and aspects I listed. 

Planning is very important. Installation itself is not straightforward, and does take some time. It took me an hour and a half to two hours to complete the installation. I had a team of five to help me deploy VMware to cover the levels of storage, networking, computing, and cabling. 

I implemented through an in-house team. 

The license is very costly, as well as the renewal cost. We have the Enterprise Plus license. I recommend that my customers renew the support contract because they will inevitably have issues. VMware releases new features and if customers want to use these features, they definitely have to maintain their support contract. 

I would rate VMware Horizon an eight out of ten. 

I have several customers—a few educational institutions and one financial organization—who use Horizon in their infrastructure. I definitely recommend this solution, especially for educational institutions, because it's really good for them to have VDI infrastructure. This is one of the best solutions they can implement.  

Most of the colleges are using Chromebooks but what I'm trying to develop is some virtual machines that have a common operating system to deliver to the student. They would be a virtual machine, similar to a Chromebook. This is what I am trying to develop.

The most important feature of this solution is the connectivity with every device, such as iPad, iPhone, and other terminals. The security of the solution is very good.

I have been using VMware Horizon 7 for approximately one year.

VMware Horizon 7 is stable. I think it is the strongest because I'm doing a lot of tests and the stability it's great. I have been very happy.

I'm using 50 users in my lab and I have been testing the performance, it's about 20%. It has excellent stability.

I have not used technical support. I bought some books and there are internet videos that I have used.

My deployment is complex and I hope it will only take a month.

The VMware Horizon 7 license is for three months. We are in the testing stage, we are still evaluating the product. We are sure now that we need to buy a license for the production environment.

The evaluation license has all the features already that we need. We are installing exactly what features we want for the level of license.

I rate VMware Horizon 7 a ten out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for data center consolidation and the infrastructure of servers.

We are happy with the interface, configurations, pricing and support. 

We are not satisfied with the storage vendor.

I would like to see the VDP or other features for backing up the VMs.

We have been using VMware Horizon 7 for around 10 years.

The stability is sufficient for our needs. 

The scalability is sufficient for our needs. 

We have come out with an initiative to consolidate and reduce the data center by applying HCI infrastructure. 

We are happy with the support.

For the most part, the initial setup is simple. 

Deployment took no more than two months. 

We used resellers for the deployment.

We have issues with the storage vendor. 

Mostly, one or three people are involved in the deployment. 

We are happy with the price. 

We do not have an active subscription, just a permanent license. 

I have recently been conducting searches for more vSAN and hyper-converged features.

There are around 5,000 users making use of the solution.

I rate VMware Horizon 7 as an eight out of ten.