asked on Workstation virtualisation solution - alternative to VMWare Horizon ?
Dear all,
We are looking for a user workstation visualization solution for a small setup of approx 15 users.
What we want is to be able, a boot time, to "push" a managed image of a windows OS (typically win7 or 8) to a bunch of workstations (no necessarily completely standardized but still similar in capacity). We don't want thin clients / VDI here but managed thick clients.
It seems that VMWare Horizon would do that but unless I'm completely wrong with their licensing we are looking for 30k$+ for our 15 users, which is way over budget.
Again, about 15 workstations, only windows, may a set of 2-3 standard images to deploy at boot. Something lightweight...
What would be your recommendation ?
We are looking for a user workstation visualization solution for a small setup of approx 15 users.
What we want is to be able, a boot time, to "push" a managed image of a windows OS (typically win7 or 8) to a bunch of workstations (no necessarily completely standardized but still similar in capacity). We don't want thin clients / VDI here but managed thick clients.
It seems that VMWare Horizon would do that but unless I'm completely wrong with their licensing we are looking for 30k$+ for our 15 users, which is way over budget.
Again, about 15 workstations, only windows, may a set of 2-3 standard images to deploy at boot. Something lightweight...
What would be your recommendation ?
VirtualizationVMware
Last Comment
Alexandre Takacs
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So you don't want VDI, what you want to BOOT Windows 7 or Windows 8 across the network ?
ASKER
Yes - based on managed, predictable, organized fashion.
I guess I can install ESX on all machine and netboot them ?
I guess I can install ESX on all machine and netboot them ?
You can deploy WIndows 7 or Windows 8 via the network, but it takes a few hours to deploy, so this is not a suitable method for usage.
Products like Symantec Enterprise Ghost or Microsoft Deployment Toolkit can do this.
Products like Symantec Enterprise Ghost or Microsoft Deployment Toolkit can do this.
ASKER
Well I'm not sure I got an answer here (might be that my question in not expressed correctly...).
I'm not looking for a deployment solution - I'm looking for some managed thick client visualization. Is Horizon the only game in town ?
I'm not looking for a deployment solution - I'm looking for some managed thick client visualization. Is Horizon the only game in town ?
Did you look at the links, and comparison of all the VDI solutions?
Horizon is a VDI solution, e.g. a virtual machine, with Windows 7 installed.
It allows the deployment of Windows 7 (virtual machine), and a connection broker which allows the easy connection to it from a client, the client can be WIndows, iPad, Androud, or a Thin Client.
So what do you want to do ?
What management of thick client are you looking for, what features ?
Application Deployment ?
Patches ?
Horizon is a VDI solution, e.g. a virtual machine, with Windows 7 installed.
It allows the deployment of Windows 7 (virtual machine), and a connection broker which allows the easy connection to it from a client, the client can be WIndows, iPad, Androud, or a Thin Client.
So what do you want to do ?
What management of thick client are you looking for, what features ?
Application Deployment ?
Patches ?
ASKER
Ok actually it would seems that what I really need (or comes closest to my needs) is http://www.vmware.com/products/horizon-mirage
Anyone using it around here ?
Anyone using it around here ?
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ASKER
Well it is not "just" for initial deployment - the plan is also to maintain the client "images" over time, including application "layering", the possibility to separate the user data from the underlying OS and easy backup / recovery.
Windows MDT certainly does a lot of that - not sure how far it goes. Also looking into a mix of cruciblewds and wpkg...
Windows MDT certainly does a lot of that - not sure how far it goes. Also looking into a mix of cruciblewds and wpkg...
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ASKER
Godd feedback - got me working on MDT :)
Actually we do NOT want VDI - we want the users to run local Windows. I thought something based on netboot might be in order... ?