VMware is reinforcing the on-premise pillar of its hybrid computing strategy with a new release of Horizon that connects the dots between the software-defined data center and the public cloud in a unified platform for virtualizing desktops and applications. The announcement comes a month after the firm introduced Horizon DaaS, a hosted VDI service that builds on its acquisition of Desktone and competes with Amazon WorkSpaces.

“As you look at where the data center is going, it’s moving to the cloud, and we have a clear strategy there. But in terms of where the end-user computing opportunity is, I see this as just the first inning,” Sanjay Poonen, the head of VMware’s End-User Computing business, told SIliconANGLE in an interview last year. His two other top-priorities are virtual desktops and mobile devices.

“VDI is a two player market and our competitor isn’t innovating very much; we have an opportunity to be the innovator and gain market share and overtake them to be number one,” Ponnen said, taking a jab at Citrix. “But mobile, we’re just in the beginning of that inning, it’s a wide-open market.”

Horizon 6 provides a single point of control for user experience across devices and locations, according to VMware, allowing admins to meet the needs of mobile users regardless of where they are or what end-points they’re using. The solution can now be used to deliver everything from cloud services like Salesforce to published applications from competing offerings such as Citrix XenApp.

On the operations side, the new version provides integration with VMware’s Virtual SAN (vSAN) software-defined storage solution, which reduces hardware requirements and simplifies infrastructure management. This can potentially go a very long way towards making VDI more economically compelling, addressing the inefficiencies that have historically plagued in-house deployments.

Horizon 6 also consolidates image management for virtual, physical and most importantly, employee-owned PCs, a feature that should make it easier for organizations – especially large enterprises – to jump on the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) bandwagon. The platform centralizes monitoring as well through a new purpose-built tool in the vCenter Operations data center management suite that provides “deep visibility” into system health and risk all the way down to the individual device level. It also automates provisioning and other administrative tasks, freeing up practitioners to focus on business objectives.

Lastly, Horizon 6 introduces a cloud client that connects to VMware’s public cloud service and allows customers to balance on- and off-premise desktops in a way that best suits their particular requirements.

The software is set to launch in the second quarter starting at $250 per user. It will be available in three editions: Horizon View Standard, which packs the basic desktop virtualization functionality, an Advanced version that includes vSAN integration and an Enterprise Edition with added automation and management capabilities.

Not wasting any time, several of VMware’s partners have already announced support for the platform. Unidesk debuted a new version of its flagship VDI administration product that it says is fully interoperable with all three editions, and virtualized applications lifecycle management specialist CloudVolumes is rolling out a dedicated tool for managing Horizon 6 environments.