The COVID-19 pandemic permanently reshaped healthcare work, accelerating the shift toward hybrid care models and distributed teams. But for many organizations, legacy virtual desktop infrastructure solutions — weighed down by complexity, performance issues and security gaps — struggled to keep up. That can’t happen in healthcare, because downtime can disrupt patient care.
The Omnissa Horizon platform steps in where many virtual desktop tools fail, providing a secure, multicloud VDI platform built to deliver reliable access for clinicians, administrators and support staff alike, while also streamlining and improving the user experience. In testing, the platform proved ready to help healthcare organizations modernize without adding extra complexity to their critically important environments.
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An Optimized Experience for Healthcare Workers
Omnissa Horizon was evaluated on a variety of operating systems, including Windows and macOS, and with different hardware platforms, including desktops, tablets and a thin client. One of the most impressive things about working with virtual desktops managed through the platform was that the user experience was nearly identical throughout. A virtual desktop hosted on a powerful workstation performed just as well on a thin client with a metered connection and a tablet using a wireless signal.
The platform uses a technology called Blast Protocol to optimize the user experience regardless of bandwidth constraints. Even graphically intensive environments look good and work well on platforms, such as tablets, that were not really designed to support them.
On the back end, other optimizations have been created to streamline the management of the entire VDI; for example, the instant clone feature, which allows the capture of approved desktop images. Administrators can create different clones for different roles, so a doctor and a front desk staffer could have different images ready to go. When someone is hired, they can be given a fully configured desktop environment tailored to their new role in just a couple of clicks.
Securing Healthcare Work From the Start
Of course, security in healthcare is critical, and Omnissa Horizon includes strong protection for data, users and infrastructure — and that security is layered throughout the VDI, eliminating weak points for attackers to exploit.
For example, the health of devices and other endpoints driving virtual desktops is constantly monitored. If a problem or security issue is detected, that device can be locked until the problem is fixed.
Deeper inside the network, critical information such as patient data can be protected and stored in secure data centers or clouds; user devices are allowed to view the data only when needed, while the actual record remains fully protected.
In healthcare settings, clinicians and support staff need fast, reliable access to applications and patient data from anywhere, and they need it without compromising security or compliance. Omnissa Horizon’s multicloud VDI platform helps IT teams deliver that access while keeping sensitive information in the data center or cloud, not on endpoint devices. The platform’s security layers reduce the risk of breaches, and its instant clone and app-on-demand capabilities minimize downtime, ensuring that technology fully supports — not slows — the delivery of patient care.
SPECIFICATIONS
PRODUCT TYPE: Cloud-based VDI and application delivery platform
DEPLOYMENT: SaaS, with support for on-premises, hybrid and multicloud environments
DEVICE TYPES: Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS and thin/zero clients, with optimized support for graphic-intensive and high-latency environments
FEATURES: Centralized provisioning and management of virtual desktops and applications, secure remote access, unified multicloud management and real-time performance monitoring
