The mirage product is part of the Horizon Workspace Suite which has been detailed in my post. The Horizon Mirage 4.0 is a major evolution of the Mirage product from the previous release, which has been tested in my lab.
Read here: VMware Mirage Lab Installation (Step by step Serie of 3 posts).
Horizon Mirage 4.0 introduces new possibility to add and manage application layers. Feature, which wasn't available in previous release of Mirage, where all the applications installed in the Master image were replicated to the endpoints without any possibility to separate.
Horizon Mirage can protect and maintain not only physical endpoints, but also virtual desktops, where users can create a virtual replica of their laptop/desktop. So if the physical laptop/desktop isn't available, the user can access the virtual desktop by using his tablet, smartphone or from Linux system. The use cases are numerous and flexible. Mirage fits perfectly between the Horizon View and Horizon Data.
Mirage can make the life of IT admins easier, where it's possible to revert changes on endpoint. The changes are reversible – files and complete layers can be fully restored to past states. Usually end user laptops/desktops do not have any kind of disaster recovery. Usually shared files lays at the datacenter, with an offline access, but the whole endpoint isn't really protected, due to the usual overhead.
In addition the Mirage image can even be provisioned on bare metal (to machine where Windows is not yet installed), which avoids installs the PC with Windows and then the Mirage client.
What's new in Horizon Mirage 4.0?
- Anything can be put into a layer (Applications, Drivers, Thinapps !!, Shell extensions)
- App Layer Versions with post-install scripts
- Can do change layer when hardware is refreshed.
- The process of capturing layers is easier
- Better reporting on errors
- Support Server 2012 for Mirage Servers
- Better progress bar indicator to migrate from XP to Windows 7 – for end users
- Support for Windows 8 Surface tablets
FYI, VMware Thinapp is part of the Mirage or Horizon Suite and not a standalone product any more.
Keep reading further about different possible scenarios for Horizon Mirage 4.0 –>
FYI, support of Windows 8 has been removed from GA.
Thanks Jeremie,
Here is the release notes: (no sign of W8..) http://www.vmware.com/support/mirage/doc/releasenotes-mirage4.html