Why VMware Horizon 6 Is a Better Choice Than Citrix XenDesktop WHITE PAPER

Transcription

1 Why VMware Horizon 6 Is a Better Choice Than Citrix XenDesktop WHITE PAPER

2 Table of Contents Introduction Trusted Platform Optimized for EUC and Hyper-Converged Advantages of the VMware SDDC and Horizon 6 with View Integration Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Flexible Delivery Options for the Best End-User Experience... 6 Cloud, On-Premises, and Hybrid Options Offline Support Workspace Environment Management for Lower OpEx End-to-End Management Application Delivery User Environment Management Unified Image Management Controlling Access with Identity Management, Security, and Compliance Monitoring and Automation Additional Advantages Superior Network Integration AirWatch Mobile Device Management Leadership Highest Customer Satisfaction and Best Value Summary WHITE PAPER / 2

3 Introduction VMware data center and desktop virtualization solutions enable us to slash costs, accommodate district growth, and deliver outstanding customer service to students, faculty, and administrators all without increasing the size of our IT staff. Brooks Moore, DCS Technology Help Desk Manager, Aledo Independent School District Going mobile means so much more to IT departments than merely setting up a user s device for access. Today, end users are leveraging new types of devices for work, accessing Windows applications alongside non- Windows-based applications, and being more mobile than ever. As end users travel the globe, managing and delivering services to them with traditional PC-centric tools is like trying to serve ice cream with a toothpick. Besides the inefficiencies with the approach (and the inevitable spoilage), very real concerns about data loss and image drift are inherent. Organizations struggle to protect their intellectual property, contain their costs, and adhere to ever-changing compliance requirements. VMware Horizon 6 delivers virtualized and published desktops and applications through a single platform to end users anytime, anywhere, on any device. These desktop and application services including Remote Desktop Session (RDS) hosted apps, packaged apps with VMware ThinApp, software-as-a service (SaaS) apps, and even published apps from Citrix XenApp can all be accessed from one unified workspace across devices, locations, media, and connections. Leveraging closed-loop management and optimized for the softwaredefined data center (SDDC), Horizon 6 helps IT manage, control, and protect all Windows resources at the speed required and with the efficiency that business demands. With the inclusion of such important capabilities as just-in-time application delivery to support truly stateless desktops, Horizon 6 allows organizations to extend the power of desktop and application virtualization to support workplace mobility while driving greater levels of operational efficiency at lower costs. Horizon 6 provides a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) platform that delivers virtualized and remote desktops and applications through a single platform, giving end users access to all their Windows and online resources through one unified workspace. More organizations are choosing Horizon 6 over Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp because Horizon 6 offers a more comprehensive and feature-rich solution. The three key architectural advantages that Horizon 6 has over Citrix are a trusted platform, flexible delivery options, and workspace environment management. APP Real-Time Application Delivery Policy Management User Environment Management End-to-End Monitoring Workspace Environment Management for lower OpEx Flexible Delivery for the best end-user experience On Premises Cloud Hybrid Offline Compute Network Storage Trusted Platform optimized for EUC and hyper-converged Figure 1: VMware Mobile-Cloud Architecture Differentiators This paper, intended for IT decision-makers and influencers concerned with selecting the best end-user computing solution for their organizations, describes how these three architectural advantages play a key role in the success of any organization that is going mobile. WHITE PAPER / 3

4 1. Trusted Platform Optimized for EUC and Hyper-Converged The benefits of using VMware Horizon with View are in hardware cost and time savings. It equals out to be about $3.2 million savings per year for the organization. That s money that we can put back into services for the citizens of Mecklenburg County. Cliff DuPuy, Director of Technical Services, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Horizon 6 with View, the market-leading VDI solution, is tightly integrated with the VMware SDDC to deliver consistency in management, usability, operational savings, and optimized use of physical resources. For corporations standardizing on SDDC, View is the best choice for virtualizing the desktop. Virtual Storage Virtual Compute Virtual Networking Leverage low-cost storage with streamlined management Figure 2: VMware Software-Defined Data Center VMware Software-Defined Data Center Host 10+ virtual desktops per CPU core Hyper-Converged Infrastructure for VDI Get granular policy setting with vcns Advantages of the VMware SDDC and Horizon 6 with View Integration The VMware VDI solution offers a number of distinct advantages. VMware Virtual SAN simplifies storage administration through automated and customizable settings and reduces storage costs by up to 50 percent. It combines server disks and flash storage to create resilient, highperformance shared storage designed for virtual machines. VMware vsphere with Operations Management is the leading hypervisor with a complete management and operations solution. Virtual SAN is fully integrated with vsphere, allowing users to manage both from the same pane of glass. VMware NSX simplifies network provisioning and provides micro-segmentation. Extensive 3D graphics support vgpu with NVIDIA, vsga, and vdga provides various price points and levels of 3D capabilities. The VMware hybrid cloud and hyper-converged infrastructure offer the lowest cost options for on-premises and cloud-based implementations. In tests, View reclaimed 27 percent of disk space from its virtual desktop and returned it ready for general use, making more room on the datastore for other desktop images, applications, or user data. Citrix XenDesktop could not reclaim any disk space. Less CPU and disk I/O needed for antivirus scans. View performs scans, enabled by VMware vshield Endpoint, through a virtual appliance, making it more efficient than XenDesktop, which performs antivirus scans at the slower, less efficient virtual machine level. WHITE PAPER / 4

5 Hyper-Converged Infrastructure VMware EVO: RAIL delivers a hyper-converged infrastructure appliance that is 100 percent powered by the VMware proven suite of core products. The EVO: RAIL software bundle, which is fully loaded onto the qualified partner s hardware, consists of VMware vsphere Enterprise Plus Edition, including ESXi for compute Virtual SAN for storage VMware vcenter Server VMware vcenter Log Insight EVO: RAIL is suitable for new users of VMware as well as for experienced administrators. Minimal IT experience is required to deploy, configure, and manage EVO: RAIL, allowing it to be used in organizations with limited or no IT staff onsite. Because EVO: RAIL uses VMware core products, experienced administrators can apply existing VMware knowledge, best practices, and processes to their deployment. EVO: RAIL leverages the same database as vcenter Server, so changes in the EVO: RAIL configuration and management are reflected in vcenter Server and vice versa. VMware EVO: RACK is the market-leading appliance-based hyper-converged infrastructure for VDI and provides these advantages over Citrix: Easy to deploy and manage Lower on-premises VDI costs Predictable performance Highly resilient by design WHITE PAPER / 5

6 2. Flexible Delivery Options for the Best End-User Experience Modernizing the desktop infrastructure gives our technology teams greater mobility and access to solutions that serve students and studentfacing advisors. Claudiu Budurlean, Director of IT, Client- Computing Architecture, Apollo Education Group, Inc. End users do not want to be tied to a physical computer during their workday. They need multiple places and types of workspaces for maximum productivity and satisfaction, and they expect the same user experience regardless of where they are located. To address this demand, Horizon 6 delivers the broadest set of workspaces in the industry, including hosted applications and desktops and persistent and non-persistent desktops. In addition, organizations have the flexibility to determine the level of remote application functionality users have for Windows applications. The broad solution offered by VMware also includes on-premises, cloud, hybrid, and offline options for delivering full desktops or single applications to all users, no matter where they are. VMware continues to innovate past the competition with just-in-time desktops that combine the imminent vmfork and App Volumes and provide On-demand creation of live virtual desktops Fully personalized desktops and applications Scalability to thousands of desktops Optimized infrastructure usage Extremely simple desktop management Citrix is missing the revolution that is happening in end-user computing today. Live Template Clone Desktop APP vcloud or vcloud Air Figure 3: Just-in-Time Desktops Cloud, On-Premises, and Hybrid Options Horizon 6 provides the only true hybrid delivery system with Horizon Air. Horizon 6 and Horizon Air together allow organizations to deploy their VDI infrastructure on-premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid of the two. Citrix does not have a full hybrid deployment option for on-premises and cloud. Horizon 6 and Horizon Air comprise the industry s first hybrid client DaaS solution. Horizon Air gives customers the ability to blend VMware public cloud desktops on VMware vcloud Air (formerly vcloud Hybrid Service ), cloud-hosted desktops from Horizon Air Powered Service Providers, and View private cloud desktops for a seamless end-user experience. With a few simple steps, IT can provision, deploy, and manage high-quality, full Windows desktops that end users can access from laptops, desktops, zero or thin clients, Google Chromebooks, tablets (ios and Android), and mobile devices. WHITE PAPER / 6

7 vcloud Air Data Centers Public Cloud Public Cloud Private Cloud VMware Horizon Air Powered Service Provider No infrastructure to manage No upfront costs Scalable on demand Minimal expertise required No infrastructure to manage No upfront costs Scalable on demand Minimal expertise required Value-added services including help desk, management, security, backup, etc. Customer manages infrastructure Buy your own compute, network, storage Flexibility in desktop options IT expertise required Figure 4: Horizon Air Allows Customers to Blend Desktop Environments Unlike other solutions that offer either Windows Server or RDS environments, Horizon Air supports both types of desktops in addition to full Windows client desktops, all at an affordable price. Horizon Air also offers a superior end-user experience with Unity Touch, providing better-than-native support for touch devices beyond just gestures. The Citrix infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solution does not compare to VMware Horizon DaaS. The Citrix platform allows service providers to stand up a DaaS, but the customer cannot buy a cloud-hosted desktop from Citrix, which is available today with Horizon Air. Offline Support VMware Horizon FLEX provides the endpoint security and central management needed to support offline users who cannot get to the network every time they need to work. Citrix instead relies on third-party products from Oracle and Microsoft. Policy Server Client Image Management Horizon FLEX Citrix Desktop Player Citrix Oracle Citrix Microsoft Figure 5: Horizon FLEX Compared to Citrix WHITE PAPER / 7

8 3. Workspace Environment Management for Lower OpEx Only VMware provides a workspace environment management platform that spans across end-user needs from application management to image and desktop management, including policy management, security, and compliance, and finally monitoring and automation. Whether the need is to manage a workspace, control access, deliver applications, or meet security and compliance requirements, VMware offers extensive management capabilities that provide more control and visibility than other products. End-to-End Management Only VMware provides application and workspace management that encompasses the following capabilities: Isolation Containerized applications that are isolated from the operating system Delivery Delivering applications to virtual desktops in real time Access Single sign-on (SSO) access to all applications and services through a unified workspace Monitoring In-guest metrics for application performance monitoring User environment management Consistent, personalized, and dynamic desktop experience across all devices Image management with built-in disaster recovery User Environment Management Consistent desktop experience across devices Application Delivery Application delivery to virtual desktops in real time Application Access SSO access to all applications and services through a unified workspace Application Monitoring In-guest metrics for application performance monitoring Application Isolation Contained applications, isolated from the operating system Image Management Image management with built-in DR Figure 6: End-to-End Application and Image Management Application Delivery App Volumes provides state-of-the-art, real-time application management that eases the burden of getting the right apps to the right people, from creation to delivery through updates and into retirement. Citrix PvD supports only pooled static VDI it cannot be assigned per user, and it does not support physical desktops or Citrix XenApp. WHITE PAPER / 8

9 User Environment Management VMware User Environment Manager (UEM) allows desktop and application virtualization users to maintain consistent personalized settings, such as desktop wallpaper and browser bookmarks, from session to session and from one device to another. VMware promotes a consistent and dynamic desktop experience that is independent of operating system, device, and location, enabling true business mobility. The Citrix UEM capability manages Windows User Profiles, which only allows IT to back up and restore a user profile from one system to another. VMware UEM allows IT to support more use cases, including delivering a consistent user experience across multiple platforms, during OS migration, between on-premises and cloudbased environments, and providing environment settings using dynamic, contextual policies, such as location. Unified Image Management Using VMware Mirage technology has revolutionized the way our IT department operates. We re able to have a team of just three manage the laptops of over 1,000 employees, so it s amazingly cost effective. We get fantastic feedback from everyone from end users to our efficient IT staff. Alexander Smirnov, Senior Director of Global Strategy Planning, Mellanox Technologies 1 VMware Mirage provides unified image management for physical desktops, virtual desktops, and BYODs that is second to none. Mirage simplifies managing physical and virtual machines, drives down costs, allows IT to efficiently update operating systems and applications, and improves workplace productivity. Load Balancer LAN Mirage Servers PERSONAL APP OS Figure 7: VMware Mirage Centralizes Image Management WAN NAS PERSONAL APP OS Mirage Clients PERSONAL APP OS Mirage Admin VPN PERSONAL APP OS Mac Running Fusion Pro Unify images with layering Mirage allows IT to manage images across physical desktops, virtual desktops, and BYODs. Layering simplifies OS and application rollouts. Devices are separated into logical layers that IT or end users can control. IT can streamline OS and application layer updates, and end users can maintain their personalized settings. This flexible endpoint management technique enables quick software and hardware upgrades, supports efficiency, and reduces downtime. Accelerate Windows 7 and 8.1 migrations Mirage accelerates Windows migrations, whether the approach is upgrading a Windows XP device, upgrading a Windows 7 device, or migrating an end user s profile and files to a new machine. Before beginning the migration, Mirage takes a full snapshot of the Windows system so that if something goes wrong, IT can quickly restore the end user to the previous well-known state. These capabilities allow organizations to save time and money when migrating to a new OS. For example, the savings for a 5,000-person organization could add up to roughly $600,000 in IT time and more than $1 million in end-user productivity gains. 1. VMware Provides Mellanox Technologies with a Comprehensive, Centralized Management and Recovery Solution. WHITE PAPER / 9

10 VMware really shines today with the Mirage offering. Mirage is leaps and bounds above anything that Citrix can offer for physical PCs. Brian Suhr, Virtualize Tips blog 2 Automate PC backup and full system recovery Whether one needs to reimage a desktop, repair a broken hard drive, replace a lost or damaged PC, or roll back a malfunctioning PC to a previously working snapshot, restoring a desktop can be difficult. Mirage takes snapshots of the entire PC, including the OS, applications, files, and personalization, and restores an exact image of the end user s system to any replacement device. Selfservice file recovery and follow-me access to files across devices additionally enhances end-user productivity. Manage remote and branch office PCs without added infrastructure Mirage works over the WAN by leveraging deduplication capabilities, both in storage and during network transfers. This functionality gives IT a powerful tool for managing laptops and desktops used by remote offices, home workers, and traveling employees. Mirage centralizes backup copies of these endpoint PCs over the WAN and into the data center. Extend PC lifecycle management (PCLM) tools The layering benefits and backup, recovery, and rollback options of Mirage can complement PCLM tools. By extending PCLM, Mirage lowers help desk support costs, improves backup and recovery, and simplifies mass OS deployments. Citrix does not have a viable answer for the capabilities that Mirage offers. To manage physical PCs in a Citrix environment, IT staff can piece together provisioning services, Citrix Synchronizer, and XenClient to create a solution. Even when combined, these products do not equal the Mirage complete image management solution for physical and virtual desktops and BYODs. Running XenClient also has limitations in terms of hardware and driver support, because it does not have an extensive hardware compatibility list. In addition, XenClient is a type 1 hypervisor that requires a bare-metal disruptive installation, replacing the existing OS on a device. Controlling Access with Identity Management, Security, and Compliance Horizon 6 is the only end-to-end solution for delivering and managing desktops, applications, and online services to end users across virtual data centers, virtual machines, and physical devices. Customers can benefit from VMware Workspace, which provides users a convenient portal from any device to access applications and virtual and hosted desktops. Workspace offers Consistent cross-device user experiences Responsive HTML5 portal that supports PC and Mac clients and ios and Android devices Easy customization to match a customer s branded look and feel One Login One Experience Any Device Figure 8: VMware Workspace Provides End Users Access to What They Need with One Login 2. My EUC suite comparison for VMware vs Citrix. Brian Suhr, December 16, WHITE PAPER / 10

11 Workspace is vendor-agnostic. Users have self-service access to Remote apps, Web apps, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) apps ThinApp applications VMware hosted applications (RDSH remote apps) Citrix XenApp published applications Windows apps and ThinApp packages Horizon 6 with View virtual desktops With the introduction of Blast Experience with Unity Touch, VMware broke away from the mobile pack by providing what some say is a better than native user experience, making it easier to run Windows applications on ios and Android devices. Unity Touch bridges the gap between touch screen and Windows applications. It enables browse and search functionality and makes it easy to open Windows applications and files, choose favorites among them, and switch between running applications without using the Start menu or taskbar. Citrix continues to introduce disparate user experience metaphors with Receiver and Worx Home. These separate products for desktops, apps, and mobility increase complexity rather than simplify. In contrast to the ease with which one can customize Horizon Workspace Portal, Citrix does not provide UI tools for customization. Instead, manual development tools or Notepad and manual coding are required. Monitoring and Automation VMware monitoring and automation capabilities provide end-to-end visibility from the data center to the end user. This surpasses competitive products, such as Citrix Director and Edgesight. The monitoring capabilities offered by Citrix are limited to Citrix components and cannot provide end-to-end visibility like VMware vrealize Operations Manager for Horizon. VMware vrealize Operations Manager is an integrated, analytics-driven management solution that gives visibility into the health and performance of all Horizon-delivered sessions. VMware vrealize Operations Manager provides metrics that are vital for monitoring, traceability, and step-by-step troubleshooting. The automated, predictive engine anticipates where the next issue will occur all without third-party tools or additional charges. VMware vrealize Operations Manager supports the end-user experience out of the box. Data collected, dashboards, alerts, and alarms are organized around the end user. Other products require administrators to perform extra work to obtain similar information. With vrealize Operations Manager help desk support, users can solve issues quickly and prevent them from recurring in the future. VMware vrealize Operations Manager creates and uses dynamic thresholds for each user and metric. These thresholds are the result of self-learning analytics that are based on user behavior and respond to a user s expected range of behavior. More discerning than static thresholds that other tools employ, vrealize Operations Manager lowers help desk and VDI operations cost by reducing false positives. WHITE PAPER / 11

12 Running vrealize Operations Manager with the VMware SDDC provides complete visibility and seamless interoperability from the top of the stack to the bottom and everywhere in between. This type of visibility from the SDDC is not available with XenDesktop monitoring tools, such as Citrix Desktop Director or NetScaler with HDX Insight. Root cause analysis is not built into either of these tools, nor do they provide compliance reporting or analytics. Citrix vrealize Operations for Horizon Citrix Director/EdgeSight Root Cause Analysis Proactive Maintenance Reactive Problem Solving Citrix Desktop Environment vsphere Infrastructure System Metrics Compliance Reporting Figure 9: VMware Offers Superior Visibility and Control Citrix does not have a product that compares with the capabilities of vrealize Operations Manager. Citrix NetScaler with HDX Insight represents the future of Citrix management and troubleshooting tools but at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars. To achieve the same capabilities provided by Horizon 6, vrealize Operations Manager, and vsphere, a Citrix implementation would need to bolster its native capabilities with third-party tools, such as eg Innovations or Splunk. WHITE PAPER / 12

13 Additional Advantages Beyond these three key architectural areas of differentiation, customers choose VMware Horizon 6 over Citrix for these additional advantages. Superior Network Integration The success of the desktop virtualization project was made possible by the cooperation of VMware as a company, involving its people both here in Japan and at its U.S. headquarters. We have built a strong relationship of trust with them, and see them not just as a supplier but as a reliable long-term partner. Jun Nishii, Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi UFJ 3 VMware and F5 Networks have developed a joint solution to provide best-of-breed VDI and network integration. F5 is the leader in the application delivery controller market far ahead of Citrix NetScaler. The integration of Horizon 6 and F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager brings a new level of security capabilities to a virtual desktop deployment. The F5 BIG-IP family provides load balancing of virtual machines, acceleration for WAN connections, access security for end users, and traffic redirection between sites and clouds. BIG-IP solutions reduce virtual application infrastructure costs while increasing performance, scalability, availability, and security. AirWatch Mobile Device Management Leadership With the acquisition of AirWatch, VMware now offers the market-leading mobile device management (MDM) solution with the largest installed base, highest product quality, and most scalable architecture in the industry. This solution features immediate support of new device operating systems and a fully integrated, unified, single-pane-of-glass management system. Citrix MDM, by contrast, is a complex deployment with loose integration and confusing licensing. Highest Customer Satisfaction and Best Value Customers as well as independent surveys and third-party reports consistently rate VMware as the best value for virtualization, with the highest level of customer satisfaction. In a report published by the Temkin Group on Net Promoter Scores (NPS), VMware placed first out of 54 vendors. The report considers the NPS an indicator of both customer loyalty and overall customer satisfaction. By contrast, Citrix scored in the lower half of the group, indicating that Citrix customers are less likely to recommend Citrix products and services to others. Some of the time- and money-saving results reported by VMware EUC customers include: Higher operational efficiencies Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi has eliminated 32,500 person hours a month of security updates. Greater productivity Mecklenburg County, NC, saves $1.2 million per year from increased productivity Excellent service levels The U.S. Central Command reports 100 percent uptime. Lower costs Colt, a European IT and network services provider, cut CapEx by 22 percent per year. 3. VMware View Desktop Virtualization Delivers Enhanced Security and Reduced Complexity Across a 50,000-Workstation Environment. WHITE PAPER / 13

14 Summary VMware Horizon 6 is the most trusted, most comprehensive, and highest performing end-user computing solution available, providing superior hypervisor integration, greater ease of use, lower cost with comparable functionality, and a better user experience. Industry analysts and independent reviewers agree that Horizon 6 is the best choice. Horizon 6 delivers greater value and greater efficiency than Citrix through its integration with the VMware SDDC. Horizon 6 provides real-time application delivery and management to support users desire for anywhere at any time. Horizon 6 offers visibility and control that is superior to Citrix, with end-to-end management. Horizon 6 includes central image management for physical and virtual desktops and BYODs that exceeds the capabilities of the disjointed image management solution offered by Citrix. Only Horizon Air and Horizon 6 provide a true hybrid DaaS solution for cloud, partner, and on-premises. Citrix does not offer DaaS with any of its solutions. Horizon 6 includes an SSO portal that is a superior, vendor-agnostic product, with self-service access to thousands of apps and extensive support, including the most secure identity management and access control. Compared to competing solutions, VMware Horizon 6 delivers the most advanced functionality, highest end-user satisfaction, and best value. VMware, Inc Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA USA Tel Fax Copyright 2015 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. Item No: VMW-WP-BETTERTHANXENDKTP-USLET WEB