VMware Horizon View Reviews

Horizon basically protects you're VMware and your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). BYOD connecting to your network and these can be secured using VMware Horizon.

With COVID there is a very big impact. There is a hybrid kind of workforce model now. People will be able to connect using their own devices. If it is BYOD case, the number of assets is going to increase. It will almost double the number of the secured assets out there. This means that as the asset size grows, there's a lot of traffic. If you talk about the Horizon it is Zero Trust Architecture plus Micro-segmentation. It has to level both into one platform.

You then need to physically test that your endpoints are all secured so that there is no way for somebody connecting from their own device or laptop to accessing the network with any kind of malicious code. You're protected.

The solution is quite stable. The performance is good.

The scalability has been very good. It's easy to expand it to more endpoints.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

The solution could be more secure. Horizon is a recent addition in the sense that, due to COVID, we're working from home and those off-network devices also have to get secured. It's not only on-premises and the cloud infrastructure anymore. Your connectivity from the endpoints from the employees who are logged in from home also has to get brought in.

The solution isn't quite mature yet. It needs more time to mature and to get more market recognition.

The solution needs to work on its pricing. Compared to VMware Workspace ONE it should not be more in terms of cost.

I've been using the solution for more than four years.

The solution is stable. It offers good performance. There aren't crashes and it doesn't freeze. there aren't bugs or glitches. It's been good overall.

The scalability is excellent. If you need to extend it to more endpoints, it's possible to do so, and it's not difficult in terms of a process. If a company needs to expand the offering, it can do so with ease.

We have a hybrid workforce, with 8,000 or so users who likely have both their work and home devices on the system.

We do plan to continue to use the product going forward. We have no plans to move away from it.

Our end-user support is our level end-user computing, EUC. EUC is a separate kind of support model, and there is dedicated support if we run into issues. So far, we have been satisfied with the level of support.

VMware worked with Workspace One, which has been upgraded into Horizon.

The initial setup is not overly complex. It's easy. It's a part of the VMware Workspace segment which makes it quite simple. A company should have no issues with the implementation.

Normally, the process from beginning to end only takes a couple of hours. It's a pretty quick process.

For maintenance, we have a team called EUC - End User Computing - that inspects all the upgrades and handles all the maintenance.

I handled the process of implementation myself. If did not need an outside consultant or integrator. We were able to manage everything in-house.

We do have a licensing fee that we need to pay. Horizon is expensive if you were to consider EDR. I cannot speak to the exact cost of the product, however.

EDR itself is a big investment. If you're investing in EDR be prepared to pay a bit. There are two platforms that we are using - Windows and Linux. In the Windows platform, basically, we can secure it using the Windows Defender. In the case of Windows Defender, we don't need any separate EDR. For Linux, however, we need it. That said, mostly the users are all Windows users. More than 60% to 70% of the users are Windows users and so we don't need the EDR product across the board. That saves some costs for us.

I did evaluate multiple EDRs before choosing this solution.

We use the latest version of the solution at this time. It's the most up-to-date option.

From the COVID impact, the number of vulnerabilities has gone up. That means there are other challenges of coping with the security in recent times due to the deluge of more assets, basically, made on one level because people are bringing their own devices into the mix. So far, we've been able to secure everything, and we've been able to stand back and say that we're fine and, even with this new hybrid work model, we are secure and back to normal, so to speak.

The solution is a recent edition that is not been fully adopted and it is still slightly immature. It's not reached a stage where it is saturated. For that reason, I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.  

I would recommend the solution.

We're a payroll company and understandably security is pretty important for us. When a user takes a laptop home you have to manage encryption in case they lose it. With everything in our data center, there's no risk of lost data because everything is run in the VDI. That's our primary use case for this product. I'm a systems engineer and we are customers of VMware Horizon View.

This product is great for desktop management, particularly when it comes to all the upgrades. It enables you to update one golden image, save it and basically deploy it. Any user logging in will get that new DDI and you've only had to upgrade one machine. The other advantage is that because you're pushing out this image, it's a clone of the original so everybody has the same experience. That's not always the case when people use different laptops, adjusting and tweaking them. It makes management a lot easier. There's also the huge savings we've had with the pandemic because everybody had to work from home. Even if there weren't enough laptops to go around, almost everybody has a home computer. It was just a matter of installing Horizon on your home computer and connecting to the office using two factor authentication. They made it really simple.

I believe documentation could be improved. There's a product in the solution called DEM, which is for screening applications or importing settings into a particular app. In VDI machines your profile's replicated or just live-streamed from the supplier server. Things like Google Chrome, with all its different application settings and passwords and whatever, is stored in zip files that are extracted when you log in. Horizon works with this but documentation is lacking. The applications have changed so much, but the company doesn't seem to be keeping up with that. The product needs to be simplified, have more documentation, and some predefined applications so that users don't have to re-engineer things each time.

For an additional feature, it would be great if they had automatic replication of all the stored profiles so we're not having to use third party tools to do the replication of their users' profiles. It would mean that you can use it as a disaster recovery server, as well as just active-active across data centers.

I've been using this solution for five years. 

It's important to set it up correctly and maintain it properly. Once it's working, it's really stable.

This solution is scalable, we currently have around 300 users and about five people who take care of everything connected to the product, including maintenance upgrades and everything. We'll expand usage if the business grows. 

There are certain aspects of technical support that are good and you can get a quick response. At other times there are issues where the blame game kicks in and you have to wait for somebody to take ownership of the problem. They're generally okay. 

In this instance we were implementing in two data centers and introducing not only a VDI, but also replicating all the data from one place to the other. Deployment involved building Microsoft clustered file servers and setting up replication between those two file servers and then mirroring the configurations. It probably took us about six months but we were doing other things at the same time. If we'd focused only on that, I think it would probably have taken about a week or two. It depends how much effort is put in. 

We definitely have an ROI. Previously, we had to patch every single laptop which was a drastic pain. With everybody now working from home, that created a whole bunch of new challenges but with VMware everything's saved in our network so no matter what's happening on the home network it's not carrying over into our business.

The product requires a Microsoft license for the operating system, which is standard. If you want support and upgrades, you pay for that. 

This is a great product but it's a massive product and you can't do anything with Horizon View alone. It requires all the other products flying together with it. It's a very complex product and it takes a lot of time to become knowledgeable about it. It's crucial to have decent hardware before implementing this solution because it's fairly resource intensive. If this is new to you, be prepared for a fairly long project because there are so many moving pieces and it's fairly complex, and it requires having a lot of things in place before you can even begin.

I rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

We deploy the solution for our clients.

The solution is very user friendly. 

The solution is very fast and easy to configure.

The solution offers good documentation.

Our customers maintain that they don't face any issues when using the solution and find it very reliable.

The product can really cater to specific customer environments.

Our customers haven't really experienced any issues with the solution. I'm not sure if there are any features that are missing.

The solution is very expensive.

I've been using VMware for about four years. However, I've only been working with Horizon View for just less than one year.

The stability of the solution is great right now. We don't have any complaints about how it's operating for us. We don't experience bugs or glitches. There isn't any crashing or freezing. There might be a minimal report about the disconnection of the agent, however, I would say that it's very minimal.

We have about 500 to 700 users on the solution who use it on a daily basis.

The solution is easy to scale.

I haven't experienced filing anything with technical support. I don't have experience with their services just yet and therefore I can't really speak to the quality of their services. However, in terms of VMware in general, they are quite responsive to issues and resolve out requests in a timely manner.

I have a virtual desktop on Azure.

I did not really switch to Horizon View, but technically speaking, I am also on VDI. I'm not just focusing on the Horizon side. I've tried to explore different VDI solutions, like Azure, just to see what it's like.

With Horizon, the difference is more on the simplicity of the user experience and the speed and delivery of the application. It's also more convenient because some of the users work from home and can work in any place or use any device. 

The solution isn't complex. It's pretty straightforward, largely due to the fact that there's only one application to deploy. We deployed one connection server and one replica. For the external users, I deployed a Unified Access Gateway (UAG). They have volumes and that's it.

With no dependency on the firewall, I think I can deploy the solution in one week. That would be the average amount of time it would take.

At this point, the solution has been running for about 10 months and hasn't required any maintenance whatsoever.

For now, I implement the solution on my own after I have read different documentation, which I find helps me deploy everything effectively. 

I have a team with knowledge of VMware, however, most of the time, I'm the technical lead on the product.

The solution is costly, however, I would argue that it is worth the money as the product can really cater to unique user requirements.

We're partners with VMware.

I'm using versions ranging from 7.9 to 7.12.

I'm not very familiar with the cloud setup and am much more comfortable with the on-premises deployment.

I deployed it to some customers. They needed to use the VDI during the pandemic. I used a setup as a work from home scenario. VDI is our solution for that kind of use case.

I would advise any organization considering the solution to learn more about the product and how it works before starting anything. It's basically not easy to deploy if you're not familiar with the product. It's important to familiarize yourself with it.

It's an excellent solution. I'd rate it ten out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for developer access within the company.

The solution's most valuable aspect is the VDI - the remote virtual desktop interface. We really enjoy using the remote desktop.

The solution can scale.

The product has been quite stable so far. The performance is very good.

The solution is quite expensive. They should work to lower the costs if possible.

The deployment of the product can sometimes be difficult. It would be ideal if the whole process was more simplistic.

There needs to be more documentation. If there was, it might help make the initial setup a bit easier. They need to provide users with more manuals.

The technical support could be more responsive.

I've been using the solution for about five years at this point. It's been a while. We have quite a bit of experience with it internally.

The product is quite stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.

The solution scales. A company could expand it if they needed to.

We have about 20 users on the solution currently.

We do not have plans to increase usage at this time.

Technical support could be better. They take too long to respond right now. We aren't quite satisfied with the level of support they provide to our organization.

We did previously use Hyper-V by Microsoft. We had issues with its performance and stability and decided to move to this product instead.

The initial setup is not always straightforward. It can be a bit complex, a bit difficult. We struggle with some aspects of the configuration which slows things down during the implementation. We have two companies and we've found that the configuration has been a real challenge for them.

In general, the deployment took us about two days to complete.

We have three people that handle the deployment and maintenance process.

We used a reseller that assisted us with the implementation. They were quite knowledgeable and it helped to have them during the process.

The solution is pricey. The cost of it is high.

That said, I do not have the full details on the exact cost to our organization.

We did look at a few other options before ultimately settling in with this product. I do not recall all of the names. The stability and the response to backups are what sold us on this product.

We are customers and end-users of the solution.

We're always using the latest version of the solution. For VMware, we're on version 7.7.

I'd recommend the solution. I'd rate it at an eight out of ten overall. For the most part, it's worked well for us and the performance is quite good, however, I'd rank it higher if it had more documentation and manuals that could assist with configuration and the initial deployment.

I am a system engineer and this is one of the products that I assist people with by providing support.

The most valuable features are Instant Clones and AppStacks.

Sometimes when we log on, there are applications that are not visible.

Technical support is only average and can be improved.

In general, there are many things that can be improved.

I have been using VMware Horizon View for about three months.

As much as I have used this product, the stability looks good. We don't have many issues that require support.

I feel that Horizon is more for a small business, rather than a large organization.

In our organization with 250 users, it works fine but if you're talking about 10,000 to 15,000 users then I don't know whether it would support a scale at that size.

Technical support from VMware is all right, although I would not say that they're great. Overall, they are average.

I am much more familiar with Citrix and work with it regularly. I have only been working with Horizon View for fine-tuning. I also use a similar product from Microsoft.

Ranking these, I would say that Citrix is first with a mark of 80%, Microsoft is second with a mark of 60%, and VMware is third with a mark of 50%.

The installation process is really fast.

We use a team that sets up solutions and then moves on. They remain only for the deployment.

In my short experience, I would say that this is a really good product that can be installed quickly for a small scale organization with not many users.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

The company I worked for were partners of VMware Horizon View. I worked as a system engineer.

What I liked was the sorting feature to create the UI on demand. We sorted complaints from a vendor image of the virtual machine.

There could be some improvement with the automation of the set up. If deployment and configuration were simplified, more companies will choose the product. 

I used this solution for about one year. 

The stability depends on the kind of stack that's in the configuration.

The solution is scalable but it's not a simple process. If you want to add any kind of component it involves some work. You need to be prepared, you have to have a certain level of knowledge in terms of environment and in terms of stack to be able to scale it.

I have a little bit of experience with technical support. It's not bad and can be useful. 

If you don't know enough about VMware, then the initial setup can be complex. It's not for a standard user. You need to have some experience with VPN otherwise it creates issues. Standard deployment takes a minimum of one or two days. 

I think this is the best solution for VDI in VM for VM users and developers. You can implement in other cases as well. For example, with Nutanix, you can use Horizon View, it is completely compatible, and you can use it to integrate HCI or other solutions. I think it's a very good solution.

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

We use it to provide virtual client desktops for remote users or data center users. It's basically for people to work from home or for a call center.

Instant Clone instantly creates another VM with a Delta disk, which is just the VMware backend. This helps with scalability and management.

They need to make troubleshooting, diagnostics, and error reporting a little better. There are too many consoles with different error messages to identify a problem and figure out how to fix it

I have been using VMware Horizon for 10 years.

It's hard to generally classify this product's performance as stable or not. The performance is dependent on the hardware, not the product. If you have fast hardware, it's going to be fast. If you have slow hardware, it's going to be slow.

Technical support is better than most. I would say it's above average.

It's very complex. There are multiple steps, connectors, and servers. All of them have multiple components that all talk, so that's never going to be easy. But I think it's complex because of what it's doing. And if you use it all the time, that complexity just becomes familiar.

We implemented in-house.

Test it. You can't just listen to a consultant. You have to test it yourself and set up a proof of concept.

I would rate VMware Horizon a seven out of ten. 

The most valuable features are that it is easy to use and easy to manage.

The licensing models should be improved in some cases.

In the future, I would like to see better support for application virtualization.

I have been using this product for the last six months.

VMware's technical support is very good.

I have also used Citrix and I find that VMware is easier to manage.

In the past, we worked with other VDI solutions that were hardware devices. We connected and worked through a centralized server. We had planned to move our 500+ users but the challenge was that we needed to have a backend server or another resource, either on the cloud or on-premises.

VMware Horizon View supports application virtualization, which is something that companies like startups are looking for. It means that you don't need to have a cloud connector or hosting in the cloud.

It is possible to create multiple user profiles so that applications can be used. For example, we can virtualize a browser and create multiple user sessions for it. It is useful, especially for applications that are used internally because you don't have to invest as much on resources.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.