Citrix Virtual Apps Essentials (discontinued) vs. Omnissa Horizon

For fast setup and implementation, Citrix Essentials was an enabler for connection success, otherwise, we could have just wasted time on other alternatives. Seemed that it was more 'out of the box' which works for us since we don't have the financial resources for complicated implementations. If this was a major ERP implementation, not sure if this would be the most appropriate solution across many countries.

Incentivized

VMware is well suited to a business where there will be many remote users needing to connect to the companies desktop. The installation on a remote computer is simple and is easy to use remotely but can be complicated to set up on the back end on the office system. It may not be worth the effort for a company that has few people who need remote access.

Incentivized

• User interface
• Support
• Integration

Incentivized

• It provides a robust, secure, rich desktop environment that is able to access all internal network resources.
• Addresses security and compliance concerns as all data resides within the internal network. All data accessed stays within the internal network and does not need to traverse a VPN to the local desktop where it may be cached, etc.
• The connection is thin client that does not require large amount of bandwidth.
• Client application is available for all common devices and O/S’s.
• No need to install, configure and maintain applications on local desktop.

Incentivized

• Network Fileshare mapping where I have encountered some issues.

Incentivized

• Move away from Adobe Flash version in UI, currently on the path but they need to hurry up
• Speed up the boot process of the environment when servers need maintenance
• Provide clear steps on what should be upgrade path in terms of components, the order
• price! A bit too much

Incentivized

We are committed to VMware Horizon and we plan to stick with it for the future unless something drastically changes.

Incentivized

Because it delivers what it promises, I am giving this rating. While there is scope for improvement, it does the job and meets our requirements reasonab;y well. It helps our remote resources connect to our environment securely and improves their productivity. We also get to access our client environment from remote locations and complete the tasks assigned to us.

Incentivized

There are a lot of things that went into my rating from the ease of use compared to other systems to the limited amount of issues I have had with this one. Any issue with this system has been identified and resolved in a much quicker manner than I have seen with like systems.

Incentivized

It is surely way better than Citrix, but it could improve a bit. Usually, they send us the solution without saying what was the root cause so we can avoid breaking something in the future. Besides that, VMWare support answers in an OK time-frame and even speaks our language (Portuguese).

Incentivized

Frankly, there were limited alternative products besides Citrix Essentials, and maybe we just need to learn more. We did not have the time to process complex Request for Proposals, obtain RFP responses, do a short-list, reference checks and a final selection with oral presentations, so IT helped Finance with moving forward and we appreciated their technical advice, speed, and guidance.

Incentivized

Although I really prefer Microsoft Remote Desktop for accessing Windows servers (from Windows machines especially), and this can be done from off-site with a VPN, this entails much more effort, namely getting everyone's Active Directory in the correct group to have access. VMWare Horizon is a much simpler solution in terms of granting access. Chrome Remote Desktop and TeamViewer are really not viable solutions for remotely accessing servers in business settings, although they work alright for home servers and such, especially from off-site.

Incentivized

• Client delivery
• Relationship management
• Visualization

Incentivized

• Saved money on PC purchases.
• Save a lot of man hours by not having to image new PCs. We just create one Template VM and clone the others from that.
• Bit of a learning curve to get the deployment right for the environment.
• Ability to make sure VMs always turn back on once they are shutdown. This speeds up load times for users.
• Less management for our PCs. If one gets a virus or something corrupts we just refresh it and within 5 minutes the user is back to work.

Incentivized