VMware Horizon FLEX
Provides the flexibility IT needs to serve BYO users, Mac users, contractors and road warriors
Overview:
VMware Horizon® FLEX™ provides the flexibility IT needs to serve end users, while maintaining security and compliance with centrally managed, containerized desktops. With Horizon FLEX, you can finally deliver a reliable Windows experience to BYO users, Mac users, contractors and road warriors – whether oline or online.
Key Benefits
- Embrace BYO and Macs: Easily deliver local virtual desktops to Mac and PC users with incredible flexibility.
- Simplify desktop management with desktop containers: Easily entitle, control and secure Windows virtual desktops for your Mac users, contractors and road-warriors.
- Work from anywhere, even when disconnected: Get access to a rich desktop experience through our industry leading clients, ensuring productivity even when on the road or disconnected from the network.
- Easily manage, backup or patch virtual desktops: Manage, backup or patch Windows virtual desktops using the Mirage for Horizon FLEX layering technology or continue to use your own Windows image management tools.
- Reduce costs: Minimize the training needs of your workforce with our streamlined user-experience. Deploying virtual desktops is significantly less expensive than shipping laptops to onboard your new employees or contractors.
Horizon FLEX serves end users while maintaining security and control.
The Evolving Workforce
Traditionally, IT administrators have protected corporate data and applications and controlled costs by providing workers with company-issued, Windows-based laptops or desktops and by defining how and from where workers could access corporate applications and data.
However, the evolving workforce of today puts new demands on IT administrators. Road warriors must be productive when disconnected from the corporate network. More and more users demand Macs, even in organizations where Windows is the corporate computing standard. In addition, many companies are moving a significant percentage of their workforce from permanent to temporary or contract roles, eliminating traditional IT controls over corporate applications and data.
The VMware Horizon FLEX Advantage
VMware Horizon FLEX is a policy-based, containerized desktop solution that allows IT administrators to create, secure, and manage local desktops to meet the needs of workers with their own computers, road warriors, and Mac users in the enterprise. End users work within a restricted virtual machine on their endpoints and can be either connected or disconnected from the enterprise network.
With Horizon FLEX, administrators have everything they need to create multiple restricted virtual machines (Horizon FLEX virtual machines) and entitle them to a variety of end users.
The Horizon FLEX solution complements existing VMware virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments by allowing administrators to cater to both online and offline user requirements. Because the Horizon FLEX virtual machine is stored locally, corporate applications are accessible to the user even when oline.
Benefits:
Embrace BYO and Macs in the Enterprise
Easily deliver local virtual desktops to Mac or PC users with incredible flexibility.
- Embrace BYO:Deliver, manage and secure Windows virtual desktops on Macs or PCs from a single solution, keeping personal and corporate information separated.
- Support Macs without the costs: Open the door to Macs in the enterprise without having to manage the devices.
- Empower your mobile workforce: Give remote and mobile employees the freedom to work from wherever they need to with a standardized corporate desktop, while keeping control over security.
- Protect your data: Easily disable virtual desktops remotely in case of theft, termination of employees or lack of compliance with the main server.
Simplify Desktop Management with Desktop Containers
Easily entitle, control and secure the Windows virtual desktops for your Mac users, contractors and road-warriors.
- Ensure fast and secure onboarding: Easily entitle users to the applications and desktops they need to get their jobs done with advanced authentication, group policies and virtual disk encryption
- Provide flexible deployments: Quickly and securely provide corporate-standard desktop access to customers, contractors and vendors via the network or with a USB key, eliminating the need for expensive additional distribution systems.
- Easily manage virtual desktops: Manage virtual desktops as a set of logical layers, simplifying desktop image management and easily deploying applications or patches to end users.
- Stay in control: Centrally control desktops and settings available to your workforce with robust security features and granular control, including restricting virtual machine settings or disabling access to USB devices
- Enable temporary workers: Configure virtual desktops to expire at a pre-determined dates and times for workers assigned to short-term projects, temporary employees or for delivering software evaluations.
Work from Anywhere, Even When Disconnected
Get access to a rich desktop experience through our industry-leading clients and ensure productivity, even when on the road or disconnected from the network.
- Reliability and stability: VMware Horizon FLEX leverages the power of award-winning clients with VMware Fusion® Pro on the Mac and VMware Player Pro™ on the PC to deliver the reliability and stability you would expect from the worldwide virtualization leader.
- Local execution: Give users access to corporate data and applications whether they are online, oline or don't have access to a reliable network connection.
- Rich desktop experience: Whether your users are running standard oice productivity applications or highly demanding 3D applications, VMware Horizon FLEX delivers a full desktop experience for instant productivity.
- Unmatched OS support for ultimate compatibility:VMware Horizon FLEX clients run on the latest releases of Windows and Mac OS X, and support prevalent operating systems like Windows XP and Windows 7 in virtual environments, so you can continue to run the applications you need in a virtual machine for as long as you want.
- Eiciency designed for mobile users: Horizon FLEX clients are type-2 hypervisors that have been designed to ensure that every watt of power coming out of a laptop battery is used as eiciently as possible so users can have access to their corporate applications without worrying about their battery life.
Support:
VMware Basic Support & Subscription
Weekday Support for Test, Dev and Non-Critical Deployments
- Global, 12x5 access to support
- Unlimited number of support requests
- Remote Support
- Online access to documentation and technical resources, knowledge base, discussion forums
- Product updates and upgrades
Overview
VMware Basic Support is designed for non-critical applications and platforms that require support during normal business hours. Our global support centers have been strategically placed to provide you with fast and efficient access to the support center in your region. Each center is staffed with engineers that can provide industry-leading expertise in virtualization and years of experience supporting virtual infrastructure products in real-world customer environments. We are committed to delivering enterprise-class, worldwide support with a single objective in mind: your success.
VMware Production Support & Subscription Service
Technical Support, 12 Hours/Day, per published Business Hours, Mon. thru Fri.
- Global, 24x7 support for Severity 1 issues
- Fast response times for critical issues
- Unlimited number of support requests
- Remote Support
- Online access to documentation and technical resources, knowledge base, discussion forums
- Product updates and upgrades
Overview
VMware Production Support is designed with your production environments in mind. Our global support centers are staffed around the clock to provide you access to our industry-leading expertise in virtualization and years of experience supporting virtual infrastructure products in real-world customer environments. We are committed to delivering enterprise-class, worldwide support with a single objective in mind: your success.
| Feature | Production Support | Basic Support |
|---|---|---|
| Hours of Operation1 | 24 Hours/Day 7 Days/Week 365 Days/Year |
12 Hours/Day Monday–Friday |
| Length of Service | 1 or 3 Years | 1 or 3 Years |
| Product Updates 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Product Upgrades 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Products Supported 3 | All Products (excluding VMware Fusion and VMware Player) |
All Products |
| Method of Access | Telephone/Web | Telephone/Web |
| Response Method | Telephone/Email | Telephone/Email |
| Remote Support | Yes | Yes |
| Root Cause Analysis | Available only with Business Critical or Mission Critical Support Offering | Available only with Business Critical or Mission Critical Offering |
| Access to VMware Web Site | Yes | Yes |
| Access to VMware Discussion Forums and Knowledge Base | Yes | Yes |
| Max Number of Technical Contacts per Contract | 6 | 4 |
| Number of Support Requests | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Target Response Times Critical (Severity 1) Major (Severity 2) Minor (Severity 3) Cosmetic (Severity 4) |
30 minutes or less: 24x7 4 business hours 8 business hours 12 business hours |
4 business hours 8 business hours 12 business hours 12 business hours |
| Business Hours North America Alaska, Hawaii Latin America Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) Asia, Pacific Rim, Japan (APJ) Australia/New Zealand |
Monday - Friday 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (local time zone) 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (PST/PDT) 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (local time zone) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (GMT/GMT+1) 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. (Singapore Time) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Sydney AET) |
Monday - Friday 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (local time zone) 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (PST/PDT) 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (local time zone) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (GMT/GMT+1) 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. (Singapore Time) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Sydney AET) |
1 Hours of operation for Gemstone are Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (PST/PDT). Severity 1 issues are responded to 24x7.
2 Product updates and upgrades are not included with Basic Support and Subscription Service for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for VMware.
Product updates and upgrades are not included with Production Support and Subscription Service for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for VMware.
3 VMware Fusion Professional and VMware Workstation require a minimum of ten (10) licenses in order to purchase Basic support. VMware Workstation requires a minimum of ten (10) licenses in order to purchase Production Support.
Documentation:
Download the VMware Horizon Flex Datasheet (PDF).