VMware Inc. is updating its Horizon virtual desktop services to reduce the cost and complexity of delivering Windows desktops over a network and improving performance for users as well.

The new Just-in-Time Management Platform integrates VMware App Volumes, Instant Clone and User Environment Manager to simplify end-user profile management and boost performance. The platform enables real-time application delivery, up to 30 times faster imaging, speedier desktop provisioning, contextual policy management and application updates with no downtime.

Underlying the performance improvements are updates to the Blast performance acceleration protocol that the company calls Adaptive Transport. Blast helps maximize bandwidth utilization by dynamically adjusting to network conditions, including varying speeds and severe packet loss, to deliver a consistent user experience regardless of the quality of the network. Blast uses standardized encoding schemes, including JPG/PNG and H.264 for pixel encoding, and the Opus audio codec, to enable applications to be delivered with fewer disruptions, faster speed and half the bandwidth of the previous version, VMware said. Desktops can be created in about 1.2 seconds, said Courtney Burry, senior director of product marketing.

“Mobile and remote workers often face conditions where networks aren’t reliable,” said Sheldon D’Paiva, director of product marketing. “We rebuilt Adaptive Transport with algorithms that tie together latency and packet loss optimization with forward repair. It’s a unified approach to addressing predictive packet loss as well as reported packet loss.” He said internal testing showed a six-fold performance improvement.

Horizon in the cloud

VMware is also expanding its partnership with IBM Corp. with the introduction of VMware Horizon Cloud, a service for delivering and managing virtual desktops and applications hosted on the IBM SoftLayer Cloud platform or on-premises using hyper-converged infrastructure (pictured). The cloud platform takes advantage of graphics processing unit technology running in the cloud to accelerate virtualized desktop applications for CPU-intensive applications like computer-aided design and manufacturing.

Customers can choose on-premises delivery via hyper-converged infrastructure, cloud-hosted infrastructure, or both. The combination of a centralized cloud control plane and the Just-in-Time Management Platform reduces the time required to configure, deploy and manage enterprise desktops and applications, VMware said. Information technology organizations can switch deployment models and infrastructure with a single subscription license.

The company also rolled out an improved way to simplify management and provisioning of on-premises applications with Horizon Apps. The platform takes advantage of the performance boosts of the Just-in-Time Management Platform and Blast, while simplifying the provisioning process. IT organizations can publish applications via a vSphere virtual machine at a price of $125 per named user for a perpetual license. An advanced version of the platform also adds the ability to create instant clones, application volumes and vSphere partitions. It’s priced at $200 per named user.

“These can be native Windows applications, custom applications or browser-based applications that you publish from an RDSH (Remote Desktop Session Host) server,” Burry said, comparing the approach to that of Citrix Systems Inc.’s XenApp.

VMware also said its implementation of Skype for Business for virtual desktops is now available as a technology preview. The product was announced last year in a collaboration with Microsoft. It enables Skype voice-over-IP sessions to use direct endpoint-to-endpoint connections without passing traffic through a central server.

Horizon Apps, Horizon Cloud and updates to Horizon 7 are expected to be available in April. Horizon Cloud pricing starts at $16 per named user per month. inHorizon 7 pricing starts at $250 per concurrent user.

Image courtesy of VMware