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. 

Horizon is used to create virtual desktops. It's helpful for people who want to transition from large desktops and laptops to more virtual desktops. More people are working remotely, and that freaks out IT departments when they can't get access to an employee's desktop. We are seeing a lot of demand for virtual desktops for remote working.

Horizon allows us to sell a solution to customers.

VMware Horizon View is easy to configure and deploy.

The cost of licenses is always a challenge. I would also like the deployment to be simplified and automated to be more streamlined. It would be helpful for managing. For example, if you are deploying 900, it would be nice to automate the management of groups of 30 or 40 or whatever you're doing. Automation and deployment tools would be good.

We've used VMware Horizon View off and on since it was first introduced in 2006. I have been messing around with VMware since early in my career. It's probably been about 18 months since I last did a direct Horizon solution. 

Horizon View is pretty stable.

Horizon View has been scalable enough for everything I've done so far. The last deployment was about 900 users. It was a mixture of office workers and managers.

VMware support is okay, but sometimes it's a little bit hit or miss trying to get somebody who knows what they're doing and talking about.

Our customers switched from more of a traditional laptop or desktop environment where they were maintaining 900 different systems and trying to keep them patched and updated. A VDI is helpful for tracking ransomware or viruses because you can lock down systems more easily when they're centrally controlled.

Setting up Horizon is probably not easy for an inexperienced person. You can't just read the manual and do it. You need some experience to set it up. It's not overly complex, but it also isn't so simple that you could deploy it yourself if you've never done it before.

It took about two or three months because you can't just roll it out. You have to migrate the users in batches. If you're rolling out a thousand users, you can't just turn it on and have at it with a thousand. You deploy 30 and migrate a department and then do another. That's the case with any virtual desktop solution. Rolling it out is always going to be a more gradual process than a big bang all at once overnight.

VMware has tools to calculate projected ROI. The customers don't hit that projection, but they get relatively close. Typically the projected return is higher than what customers actually see.

The pricing can be relatively competitive, but sometimes you have to go back to VMware and ask for additional discounts. You can make it competitive If you're prepared to put in the work. The list prices and standard discounts may not be competitive, but if you push hard enough, you can get the price to where you need it to be.

When you deploy the solution, the goal is to reduce normal operating costs by making it easier to keep your devices updated and patched. Obviously, there are hardware costs for running virtual machines, so there are additional costs depending on where you're running it, especially if you're using the standard hybrid cloud. If you use the Horizon Cloud, it's a different pricing model.

I'd rate VMware Horizon View seven out of 10. If you want to simplify management and retain control, give it some serious thought. If you're allowing users to work on their own devices, it's necessary. If everybody has their own laptops, you want to use something like Horizon or VDI to manage your corporate applications. It's absolutely essential for that type of environment.

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.

We use it in our call center, in the warehouse where we prepare products for stores, and in the warehouse.

We have 1,000 users in my organization. It's deployed on-premises. We stopped updating it in 2013 and 2017 because we used Windows 7. 

When COVID-19 started, we organized our call center remotely. The solution allowed our users to work from home.

I like that it updates quickly and allows users to have virtual desktops.

I would like to see more useful monitoring within users and a more useful help desk. 

I have used this solution for about six years.

We haven't had any problems with the infrastructure. There haven't been any bugs, but there have been glitches in the newer versions.

We haven't had any problems with scalability. It works quickly and we can scale up our infrastructure within about 10 minutes.

For technical problems, support has been fast. They were critical for implementation and installation.

I have also used Citrix.

When we started using Horizon, Citrix was more user-friendly and integrate-able. But we've found that the new version of Horizon is more useful and user-friendly with each new feature.

For Horizon and all other VMware products, setup isn't easy, but it isn't hard. Maybe the problem is with the documentation and consultation. After consultation with my colleagues in other companies, they gave me answers to all my questions.

In previous years, the documentation was not a problem. With the latest version,  there's too much documentation compared to their last available version.

It took about two or three weeks to set up. We worked to prepare images and tools for our several user groups, which was used as a test to prepare for switching.

There were two people involved in deployment: me and a network administrator.

There haven't been any maintenance requirements.

I would rate this solution nine out of ten. 

My advice is that users are interested in relevancy, and the version is not important to integration.

We use this solution for our virtual desktop infrastructure where the user's desktops are running the data center using Horizon. With the increase in the number of people working from home, we wanted a solution like Horizon. We are customers and I'm a resident consultant. 

The major advantage of this solution is that users can log in from anywhere and from a variety of devices. Previously, it was difficult for us to manage but when we moved to VDI and people were able to log in from anywhere, it made a huge difference. I like that we're able to take a snapshot of the desktop. 

Reporting could be improved. We have 200-300 users and it's difficult to know who has logged in and when. We have to do this manually so having a tool that would enable the export of reporting would be useful and save a lot of time.

I've been using this solution for six months. 

The solution is stable and highly reliable. We haven't had any issues with bugs, users are able to plug in properly, and the VMs are working fine.

Scalability is good. We initially started with four servers and within a month we have scaled it up, adding an additional four servers. We initially purchased 100 licenses and then another 100. It was simple and straightforward to scale up.

We contacted support for implementing the SSL certificate and for enabling the MFA. The support was good and we were able to resolve our issues. 

The initial setup was simple and straightforward although it will be more difficult for anyone who doesn't have experience. We have around 200 users and deployment took about three days. We have one admin for patching and updating.

Licensing is on an annual basis and quite costly. 

We use this solution heavily and I would definitely recommend it. 

I'd like to rate this solution more highly, but because of the issue with reporting, I rate it eight out of 10. 

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.