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Table Of Contents
Introduction to Horizon View 1
With Horizon View, IT departments can run virtual desktops in the datacenter and deliver desktops to
employees as a managed service. End users gain a familiar, personalized environment that they can access
from any number of devices anywhere throughout the enterprise or from home. Administrators gain
centralized control, efficiency, and security by having desktop data in the datacenter.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“Advantages of Using Horizon View,” on page 7
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“Horizon View Features,” on page 9
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“How the Components Fit Together,” on page 10
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“Integrating and Customizing Horizon View,” on page 14
Advantages of Using Horizon View
When you manage enterprise desktops with Horizon View, the benefits include increased reliability, security,
hardware independence, and convenience.
Reliability and Security
Virtual desktops can be centralized by integrating with VMware vSphere and virtualizing server, storage, and
networking resources. Placing desktop operating systems and applications on a server in the datacenter
provides the following advantages:
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Access to data can easily be restricted. Sensitive data can be prevented from being copied onto a remote
employee's home computer.
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RADIUS support provides flexibility when choosing among two-factor authentication vendors.
Supported vendors include RSA SecureID, VASCO DIGIPASS, SMS Passcode, and SafeNet, among others.
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Integration with Horizon Workspace means that end users have on-demand access to View desktops
through the same Web-based application catalog they use to access SaaS, Web, and Windows applications.
Inside a View desktop, users can also use Horizon Workspace Catalog to access applications.
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The ability to provision View desktops with pre-created Active Directory accounts addresses the
requirements of locked-down Active Directory environments that have read-only access policies.
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Data backups can be scheduled without considering when end users' systems might be turned off.
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Virtual desktops that are hosted in a datacenter experience little or no downtime. Virtual machines can
reside on high-availability clusters of VMware servers.
Virtual desktops can also connect to back-end physical systems and Windows Terminal Services servers.
VMware, Inc.
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