DaaS (Desktop as a Service) comparison & reviews

Summary
Rank
3rd 3rd 2nd
Score
0%
0%
User Reviews
Question?
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Analysis expand by Ajay Walia by Ajay Walia Karan Chawla
Select All
General expand
0%
0%
0%
  • Fully Supported
  • Limitation
  • Not Supported
  • Information Only
Pros
  • + 1) Windows 10 Multi session 2) three free years of extended security updates for Windows 7 3) Bundled Licenses, Integration with existing tools like AAD,Office,FSLogix and Azure
  • + End User Computing made Simple
  • + Designed for Multi-Cloud, Multi-tenancy, Simplicity –
  • + Very rich user experience with HTML5/browser access
  • + Strong integration with various public cloud platform, identity providers, native cloud storage integration
  • + Offers extensive use cases along with multiple options
  • + Easier enterprise integration options
  • + Protocol has good multimedia & peripheral support
  • + Premium onboarding services offered along with Migration toolset
Cons
  • - 1) 1st iteration of product Yet to prove in Enterprise grade real world implementations 2) Whole management and provisioning interface has basic functionality many tasks are only possible via Powershell 3) License does not include Azure resource consumption cost
  • - Limited Unified Communications w/ USB webcam support
  • - No Multi-user / Multi-session capabilities
  • - General/Cons – ADD ‘No Generic USB redirection
  • - Limited integration with public clouds & hypervisors due to close knit architecture
  • - Orchestration relies on 3rd party SDKs
  Content  
  •  
Content Creator
WhatMatrix - Ajay Walia
WhatMatrix - Karan Chawla
WhatMatrix - Ajay Walia
  Vendor  
  •  
Vendor Overview
Frame was named a Gartner Cool Vendor in Endpoint Computing and it is the only multi-cloud Windows workspace service running at a global scale, with 4380 employees reaching 11.5 K users in over than 200 countries.
  •  
Vendor Overview
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services
Frame was named a Gartner Cool Vendor in Endpoint Computing and it is the only multi-cloud Windows workspace service running at a global scale, 15,880 total customers – NPS score of 90 on 6-year average – 6100 Nutanix employees
VMware is based in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 1998, VMware provides business mobility, cloud and virtualization software and services, and was the first to successfully virtualize the x86 architecture commercially.
21700 employees as of 2017, Revenue of USD 8 Billion as of 2016 with more than 5L customers globally.
  Product  
  •  
Product Overview
Windows Virtual Desktop is a desktop and app virtualization service that runs on the cloud.
Manage users, publish and scale applications from a single online dashboard, and distribute tools to everyone, instantly.

Rich features allow even the most sophisticated workflows to move to the cloud: run globally in Azure and AWS locations; connect to your on-prem datacentre using a built-in hardware VPN; schedule backups and much more. Best of all you can set up a full PoC in minutes instead of months.
VMware Horizon Cloud is a cloud-hosted virtual desktop and application solution that delivers to any platform anywhere from one control pane. It gives remote and mobile employees all-around access to enterprise resources such as databases, files, and documents.
  History  
  •  
Cloud Native
Born in Cloud
Born in Cloud
Born in Cloud
  Reach  
  •  
Market Presence
Global across regions
Global across regions
Global across Verticals
Cloud Architecture expand
0%
0%
0%
  Deployment Options  
  •  
Cloud
WVD Service Hosted on Azure
Available
Horizon Cloud on Azure
Horizon on VMware Cloud on AWS
Horizon Cloud Hosted
  •  
Hybrid
All Cloud no On Prem availibility
Available
Horizon Cloud
  Cloud Worker hosting platforms  
  •  
Azure Government
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
AWS GovCloud
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Azure public IaaS
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
AWS public IaaS
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
GCP public IaaS
No
Yes
No
  •  
Any other public IaaS
No
No
IBM Softlayer (VMware Horizon Cloud Hosted)
  On-Premise Worker hosting platforms  
  •  
Integration with Microsoft Hyper-v
No
No
No
  •  
Integration with Citrix Hypervisor (formerly Xenserver)
No
No
No
  •  
Integration with VMware vSphere
No
No
Yes
  •  
Integration with Nutanix AHV
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Integration with any other HCI/Hypervisor
No
No
no
  Geographic Availability  
  •  
Control Plane locations
Global across regions
US
Yes
Enterprise Integration expand
0%
0%
0%
  Network Integration  
  •  
VPN connection
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Trunked Connection
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Virtual Network Peering
Yes
Yes
Yes
  SaaS application Integration  
  •  
Pre-integrated SaaS catalog
No
Not available
Salesforce, SNOW, Workday and other popular
Applications with SAML 2.0 and OAUTH authentication mechanisms can be used for SSO
  Enterprise Services Co-hosting  
  •  
Utility Server hosting
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Enterprise File Services integration  
  •  
Windows File Services integration
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage - Box
No
Yes
No
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage – DropBox
No
Yes
No
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage – gDrive
No
Yes
No
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage – OneDrive
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage – Citrix Content Collaboration Service
No
No
No
  Enterprise File Services  
  •  
Native integration with any other Cloud Storage
No
Yes
No
  Enterprise Policy Management Framework Integration  
  •  
GPO/GPP support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  ITSM Integration  
  •  
Integration with ITSM tool
No
Yes
Yes
Service Features expand
0%
0%
0%
  Capacity Management  
  •  
Auto scaling
Yes
Yes
Partially Available
  •  
Auto shutdown
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Auto decommission
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
REST API to setup capacity management
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Capacity management setup from GUI
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
GUI to setup instances based on schedule(s)
No
Yes
Yes
  Business Continuity  
  •  
Upgrades and Updates
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Disaster Recovery
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Data Backup/Restore
No
Yes
No
  Bundled Offerings  
  •  
Compute Tiers flexibility
Yes
Flexible
Yes
  Instance Types  
  •  
Instance type supported in Azure
Yes
Any
Support for majorly used instance types
  •  
Instance type supported in AWS
No
Any & default options recommended
no
  •  
Bare metal Instances supported?
No
No
No
Guest OS Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Windows Client OS  
  •  
Microsoft Windows 10
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Microsoft Windows 8 /8.1
No
No
Yes
  •  
Microsoft Windows 7
Yes
No
Yes
  Windows Server OS  
  •  
Microsoft Windows Server 2016
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Microsoft Windows Server 2012/2012R2
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Microsoft Windows 2019
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Linux OS  
  •  
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
No
No
No
  •  
Linux Ubuntu
No
Yes
Partially Available
  •  
SUSE Linux Enterprise
No
No
Partially Available
  •  
Linux CentOS
No
Yes
Partially Available
End-point Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Fat OS platforms  
  •  
Native Client for Windows 7/8/10 (version)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native Client for Mac OSX (version)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native Client for Linux (version)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Mobile OS platforms  
  •  
Native Client for Android (version)
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Native Client for iOS (version)
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Native Client for ChromeOS (version)
Yes
No
Yes
  Thin OS platforms  
  •  
Zero Client Support (Dell/HP/IGEL)
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Thin Client Support (Dell/HP/IGEL)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Raspberry Pi Support (version)
No
No
Yes
  Browser platforms  
  •  
Internet Explorer
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Microsoft Edge
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Mozilla Firefox
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Google Chrome
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Safari
Yes
Yes
Yes
Service Protocol expand
0%
0%
0%
  Native Protocol  
  •  
Basic Remoting Protocol name
RDP 8.0
Frame Remoting Protocol
PCoIP
  •  
HD Protocol name
RemoteFX
Frame Remoting Protocol
Blast Extreme
  Browser Protocol  
  •  
Browser Protocol name
HTML5
Frame Remoting Protocol
Blast Extreme
  TCP/UDP support  
  •  
TCP support on Native clients
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
TCP support on HTML5 Browser clients
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
UDP support on Native clients
No
No
Yes
  •  
UDP support on HTML5 Browser clients
No
No
No
  Encoding  
  •  
Support H.264
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Support H.265
No
No
Yes
  •  
Use NVENC
No
Yes
Yes
  Advanced features  
  •  
QoS within Protocol
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Build to lossless
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
3D support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Support grayscale only
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Watermarking included into protocol
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Protocol automatically adapts based on network conditions
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Connection Resiliency
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Browser Experience  
  •  
GPU support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Multi-monitor support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Resolution
About 3840 × 2160 px (4K)
4K
Yes
  Multimedia Redirection support  
  •  
HTML5 video support
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Windows Media Redirection
With Remote FX
No
Yes
  Multimedia support  
  •  
Server-side rendering multimedia delivery
With Remote FX
No
Yes
  Bandwidth/resource management  
  •  
Ability to prioritize Printing, client drives, USB, Audio, Video Traffic/ Bandwidth
With Remote FX
Yes
Yes
  •  
Supports multistream UDP/TCP
No
No
Yes
Authentication expand
0%
0%
0%
  3rd Party IDP support  
  •  
Native support for AzureAD
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native support for Ping Identity
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native support for OKTA
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native support for Google Auth
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native support for VMware Identity Manager
No
No
Yes
  •  
Support oAuth based Identity Providers
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Support SAML based Identity Providers
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Commercial Identity support  
  •  
Non Commercial Identity support
No
No
No
  Directory Services support  
  •  
Native support for Directory Services
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Cloud Directory  
  •  
Offers Cloud directory services
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Contextual Access Policies  
  •  
Restrict access/Functionality based on time/location/device
Yes
No
Yes
  Role Based Access  
  •  
Granular control
Yes
Yes
Yes
Image Lifecycle Management expand
0%
0%
0%
  Image Preparation  
  •  
Ability to customize base/golden Image
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Ability to Import Enterprise Image
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Update Management  
  •  
Application/Desktop remoting agent update
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Compliance updates
Partially Available
Customer Managed
Partially Available
  •  
Shadow pool
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Backup/Restore/Rollback options
No
Yes
Yes
User Interface expand
0%
0%
0%
  Unified Console  
  •  
Unified Workplace for App, Desktops, SaaS, Mobile
Yes
No
Yes
  Categorization  
  •  
Application grouping
No
Yes
Yes
  Alerts & Notifications  
  •  
Maintenance Alerts
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Notifications about upgrades
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Website Experience  
  •  
Survey invitations
No
Yes
no
  •  
Customize web interface
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Custom logout Redirect
By Script you could send an e-mail
Yes
Yes
Service Offerings expand
0%
0%
0%
  Options  
  •  
Stateful
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Stateless
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Use Cases  
  •  
Remote Windows Desktop Experience
Yes
Partially Available
Yes
  •  
Remote Windows Application Experience
Yes
Partially Available
Yes
  •  
Remote Windows Server based VDI Experience
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Remote Linux Desktop Experience
No
Yes
Partially Available
  •  
Secure Browser
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Launch applications via Web interface
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Launch applications as embedded app in Web Interface
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Integrate services/webapps in web interface
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Publish Content
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Support Outlook 2016 cached mode
Yes
Yes
partially Available
  •  
Support Windows Search
Yes
Yes
Partially Available
Data & End-user experience expand
0%
0%
0%
  User Profile  
  •  
Built-in User Profile Management
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Selective Profile management
Yes with FSLogix
Yes
Yes
  •  
Ability to clear “user profile data”
Yes with FSLogix
Yes
Yes
  •  
Profile restore options
Yes with FSLogix
Yes
Yes
  •  
User Profile sync with FAT Client scenario
Yes with FSLogix
No
Yes
  •  
Integration with third-party profile solutions
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
User profile can be containerized
Yes with FSLogix
Yes
Yes
  •  
Option to store Archive of profiles
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Redirection  
  •  
Open local file-types using Remote apps
No
No
Yes
  •  
Generic USB Redirection
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Supported type of Ports
Yes
No
Yes
  Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV)  
  •  
Webcam support
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Speaker & Microphone support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Unified Communication Hairpinning effect
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Microsoft SFB & Teams
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Display  
  •  
Multi-monitor support
Yes
Yes
Partially Available
  •  
Dual-monitor support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
4K monitor support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Uncommon Input Devices  
  •  
3D Space mouse
Yes
Can utilize Relative mouse feature
Yes
  •  
Pen/stylus
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Touch Support  
  •  
Touch Screen support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Touch optimization
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Gesture Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Data Access  
  •  
Clipboard Access
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Ability to upload/download files from native client
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Ability to upload/download files from browser
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Miscellaneous  
  •  
Show ‘tips’ at session start
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Client time zone Redirection
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Native integration into Chromebook system Tray
No
Yes
Yes
  Feedback  
  •  
End user is able to provide feedback
No
Yes
No
  Performance Indicators  
  •  
Connection check page build-in web interface (check supported client, different datacentres, network bandwidth, latency)
No
No
No
  •  
Display network conditions (bandwidth)
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Display network conditions (latency)
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Display network conditions (distance)
No
Yes
Partially Available
  •  
Display session time
No
Yes
No
  •  
Check system availability
No
Yes
No
  •  
Display advanced session stats
No
Yes
Yes
  Self-Service capabilities  
  •  
Application Provisioning
No
Yes
partially Available
  •  
Upgrade/Downgrade Compute power
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Allow users to reboot their Instances
No
Only Power-off possible
Yes
  •  
Users able to reset their desktop
No
Only Power-off possible
Yes
  •  
User able to Install Applications
Yes
Yes
Yes
Administration expand
0%
0%
0%
  Ease of Config  
  •  
Deployment Complexity
Not Complex
Fairly easy & Quick
Fairly easy & Quick
  Role Based Access  
  •  
Delegation of control
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Access to multiple tenants via ‘SuperAdmin’
Yes
Yes
partially Available
  Visibility  
  •  
Analytics across multiple tenants
Yes
Yes
no
  •  
Update Management
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Portability  
  •  
Copy master image across multiple tenants
Yes
Yes
no
  •  
Copy tenant policy configuration across multiple tenants
No
Yes
Partially Available
  Publishing  
  •  
Automatic detection of new installed applications to easy onboard these apps
No
Yes
Yes
  Auditing  
  •  
Auditing and security logging of admin actions
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Troubleshooting Tools  
  •  
Diagnostic tools
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Remote Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Log Availability  
  •  
Syslog integration
Yes via Log Analytics
No
Yes
  •  
Historical data is available via GUI
Yes via Log Analytics
Yes
Yes
  •  
History of logs
Yes via Log Analytics
Yes
Yes
  Reporting  
  •  
Pre-defined and Customizable Reports
Custom Only via Log Analytics
Yes
Yes
  •  
Real-time Alerting
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Web based Reporting
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Scripting  
  •  
Scripting support and command-line interface
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
SDKs
No
Yes
Partially available
  Automation  
  •  
User Provisioning
Yes
Yes
Yes
Security & Compliance expand
0%
0%
0%
  Data Protection  
  •  
Encryption Standards
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Compliance Standard  
  •  
SOC2
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
FEDRAMP / FEDRAMP Ready
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
GDPR
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
PCI
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
HIPAA
Yes
Yes
Yes
Monitoring & Analytics expand
0%
0%
0%
  Application/Desktop Instance Monitoring  
  •  
Availability
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Performance
Yes
Yes
yes
  Service  
  •  
Metrices available for QOS
No
Yes
Yes
  User Experience Monitoring  
  •  
Session Performance
Custom via Log Analytics
Yes
  •  
Application level monitoring
No
No
Yes
  •  
Productive time
No
Yes
No
  Usage Analytics  
  •  
License Usage (hourly/daily/monthly/yearly)
Custom via Powershell
Yes
Yes
  •  
Sessions (hourly/daily/monthly/yearly)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Peak usage & Peak time analysis
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Cost Control Recommendations
No
Partially Available
No
  •  
Region based analysis
Yes
Yes
Partially Available
  •  
Usage analysis
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Risk Analytics  
  •  
Abnormal behaviour detection
No
Yes
Yes
Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Service Level  
  •  
SLA
99.5
0.999
0.999
  •  
Service credits
No
Yes
Yes
  Support  
  •  
Availability hours & Level
24x7
24/7/365
24/7/365
  •  
Languages supported
Multi Lingual
English
  •  
Support capabilities offered
Yes
Premium support
https://www.vmware.com/products/horizon-cloud-virtual-desktops.html . Partners tab.
Also offers Bronze/Silver On-boarding services.
PSO services.
  •  
Migration toolset
No
No
Yes
  Documentation  
  •  
Support forum
Yes
support forum = my.nutanix.com
https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/overview
  •  
Developer Network
No
https://developer.fra.me
https://code.vmware.com/
  •  
Knowledge Base
Yes
https://docs.frame.nutanix.com
communities.vmware.com
  •  
Reference Architecture, Support documentation, Best Practice Guidance
Yes
https://docs.frame.nutanix.com
https://techzone.vmware.com/
https://techzone.vmware.com/sites/default/files/vmware-horizon-cloud-hosted-infrastructure-deployment-considerations.pdf
License & Billing expand
0%
0%
0%
  Full Solution Licensing [Control Plane (PaaS) + Workers (VMs)]  
  •  
Concurrent user subscription
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Named user subscription
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Any minimum commitment
No minimum needed
5 users minimum for Enterprise
Yes
  Control Plane (PaaS) only  
  •  
Named user subscription
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Any minimum commitment
No minimum needed
100 users minimum for Enterprise
Yes
  BYOL  
  •  
BYO-Azure subscription
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
BYO-AWS subscription
No
Yes
No
  •  
Use vendor – Azure CSP subscription
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Use vendor – AWS CSP subscription
No
Yes
yes
  •  
BYO-RDS CAL
Only for Windows 2008R2/2012R2/2016/2019
Yes
Yes
  •  
BYO-EA (for vDesktops)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Use vendor – RDS SAL CSP
Only for Windows 2008R2/2012R2/2016/2019
Yes
no
  Metering models  
  •  
Full Stack Metered usage subscription model
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Control plane Metered usage subscription model
Yes
Yes
No
  Metering  
  •  
Metering parameter
All
Per hour
yes
  •  
Services measurement
Yes
Partially Available
Usage of Compute, License, Network use & utility servers
  Miscellaneous  
  •  
Crediting system
No
Yes
No
  Pricing  
  •  
Control plane + Worker Pricing
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/pricing/calculator/?service=virtual-desktop#virtual-desktop4f3e3aec-e445-40c4-aa0c-9076bffe4742
https://www.nutanix.com/products/frame/pricing
https://vcloud.vmware.com/service-offering/pricing-calculator/horizoncloud#/horizon_cloud_pricing
https://tco.vmware.com/horizon/

Matrix Score

  •  
  •  
  • Nutanix
  • Nutanix
  • Vmware
  •  
  • 3 rd
  • 3 rd
  • 2 nd
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