Technology Preview of Project Horizon Weds 15:00

Noah Wasmer, Director, Advanced Development, VMware
Tiffany To, GPM, Advanced Development, VMware

Another very full session - clearly the keynote on this topic has generated considerable interest

Products under development disclaimer

Next Gen end user computing - the top tier of VMware's view of 3 tier model (middle tier is vCloud Apps Platform, base tier is vSphere infrastructure)

- 75% of ISVs deliver their new apps through web presentation layer - SaaS, virtual, on premise
- Diversity of connecting devices (e.g. 1,000 new types of Android devices will hit the market in 2011)

VMware approach
- single sign on for SaaS apps - aligned with internal apps and controls
- single sign on regardless of device
- looking to use industry standard protocols
- thinapp wrap can add a security layer and can be leased out to non-managed platforms and that lease can be withdrawn when required
- embracing App-V, XenApp, Dropbox (allows users to post data so they can get to it from any location / device), Salesforce etc
- Vmware proposing management of directory federation
- for traditional desktops an app icon will appear as standard, smilarly for other devices that same app will look native to the OS / interface
- modernizing Windows clients using apps isolation / portability
- need to mobilise and sync data
- looking to make externally hosted SaaS look like part of the enterprise.
- Secure STS at the enterprise boundary will talk to VMware Horizon which in turn will talk to the SaaS provision
- Horizon STS will be vAppliance or will run on Windows IIS
- Uses SAML for security passes token across the boundaries, only the token is passed, not the credentials

- Agent specific to each device will advise the service of the device type requesting access which allows the app to be presented in the appropriate format
- Admin can control which devices can access each app

Windows Apps
- ThinApp can allow patching but mitigates conflicts
- Horizon will track apps usage, allow self service, consumerization of devices
- Horizon will allow deployment / leasing of ThinApp wrapped apps to any device anywhere
- ThinApp packaged apps can be lodged in the Horizon cloud and automatic updates from ISVs can be automatically applied
- User credential requirements can be included in the ThinApp wrapper

- Horizon manages the policies of apps / user / device / time mix
- Deactive device access, app access or user access to apps
- Provisions the apps on the devices and, where necessary, creates the user with the SaaS supplier

Data
- Sync roaming profiles across devices
- Sync data around platforms and enable sharing of data between users but across multiple devices
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