VMware Horizon Air

VMware Horizon Air is a desktop and application delivery platform that allows administrators to deploy cloud-based virtual applications and desktops to end users on any device.

Formerly a desktop as a service (DaaS) product, Horizon Air hosts virtual desktops and apps in VMware's vCloud rather than the organization's data center. VMware takes care of the back-end infrastructure, including hardware, software and service-level agreements, as well as ensures performance for the customer.

Horizon Air does not require IT shops to buy Horizon View, but organizations that have View can extend their View virtual desktops for use as cloud-based Horizon Air desktops. Horizon Air integrates directly with the existing infrastructure, so administrators can manage their deployments with existing login credentials and either their own or VMware's gold image for virtual desktop and app creation. VMware places no limits on the number of users who can access a single desktop, but only one user can be on an individual desktop at one time.

Horizon Air features the Enterprise Center, a central console to manage each desktop or application deployment, which also offers multi-factor authentication for administrator and user logins. IT admins can also customize the connection between Horizon Air virtual desktops and apps and their corporate network to ensure that it is secure. In addition, they can make the apps a part of the Active Directory domain.

Users access Horizon Air desktops or apps through the VMware Horizon View Client, which is included in the product download or is available in the App Store for iOS and Google Play Store for Android. To access their apps and desktops on the Web, users can do so through an HTML5 browser or Google Chrome.