VMware Horizon General Availability – Licensing and Promotions!

VMware Horizon Suite and all of the components that make up the suite were made Generally Available (GA) on Monday (March 4, 2013).  VMware Horizon View 5.2, VMware Horizon Mirage 4.0, and VMware Horizon Workspace 1.0 versions are available as stand-alone products or all bundled into the Horizon Suite.  This is an exciting set of releases from VMware.  I wrote a summary of the releases last week if you don’t yet know what is included in the upgrades and new products.

With GA came information on pricing and licensing for individual products and for the Horizon Suite, which includes all of these components under one SKU.  With the full Horizon Suite licensing, IT gains a comprehensive set of tools to manage endpoints and provide users with increased levels of service and availability.

Here’s a breakdown of which components are included in the currently available licensing bundles:

*Included in VMware Fusion Professional

** For use in Windows version migrations only during 6 month license period, no end-point backup or other management tasks

*** Available a la carte.

VMware is offering special promotional pricing for existing customers with VMware View Premier Bundle licensing to upgrade to the full Horizon Suite at 49% off.  The upgrade to the full Horizon Suite adds Horizon Workspace and Horizon Mirage to your View licensing.  Existing View Premier per-concurrent-user licensing is exchanged for the Horizon Suite per-named-user licensing.  The conversion allows 1 View per-concurrent-user license to be exchanged for 2 named user licenses.  This could double the number of users that your current licensing can accommodate if your usage of View is near or at your per-concurrent-user license count, giving you room to grow!  This is a limited time offer, so contact Clearpath today to get the process started.

VMware has also moved several products to End of Availability (EOA) status, meaning that you’ll no longer be able to buy them.  EOA products include VMware View Enterprise Edition, VMware ThinApp, and Horizon Application Manager.  If you own these products, there are upgrade paths to non-EOA products.  For customers who hold active Support and Subscription (SNS) for standalone ThinApp licensing, VMware View Enterprise Edition licenses (Add-on and Bundle), and Horizon Application Manager, the upgrade paths are as follows:

For customers with VMware View Enterprise with active SNS, you can upgrade from View Enterprise Bundle to VMware Horizon View (formerly View Premier). Customers with View Enterprise Add-on can upgrade to either Horizon View Add-on or Horizon View Bundle.  For customers with VMware Horizon Application Manager with active SNS, there may be a free upgrade path available to Horizon Workspace.  Contact Clearpath today to learn if your licensing qualifies for a free upgrade.

P.S. VMware has extended the offer for a free upgrade from vSphere Enterprise Plus to the new vCloud Suite Standard licensing until March 15, 2013.  VMware vCloud Suite Standard includes vSphere, vCloud Director, and vCloud Networking and Security.  If you are interested in automating and securing your VMware infrastructure with the power of vCloud Director and vCloud Networking and Security don’t wait on this deal.  There is a $1 per socket upgrade charge on this, so you’ll have to work with Clearpath to get the upgrade completed before the deadline.  I have more details on the Free vCloud Suite Promotion here.