Google’s Director of Product Management for Chrome, Rajen Sheth, even says as much in a post announcing the news on the Google Enterprise blog: The timing of this Google and VMware partnership news is interesting, given that it’s clearly aimed at getting cost-conscious IT departments still using ancient, underpowered PC hardware running Windows XP to embrace Chromebooks and VMware Horizon DaaS in lieu of a potentially more expensive migration to new client devices running Windows 7 or Windows 8. Photo: HPĪccording to a VMware statement announcing the news, VMware Horizon DaaS will allow Chromebook users to “.access their Windows applications, data and desktops using VMware’s Blast HTML5 technology from a Web-based application catalog on their Chromebook…” accessible via a Remote Desktop Services (RDS) or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) connection. The new HP Chromebook 14, one of the newest laptops running Chrome OS. VMware Horizon DaaS leverages technology from Desktone, which VMware acquired in October 2013.

Now Google has taken one of their boldest steps yet at challenging Microsoft’s client OS dominance in the enterprise by announcing an agreement with VMware to bring the VMware Horizon Desktop as a Service (DaaS) product to Google Chromebooks. Google has continued to refine their Chromebook vision over the last few years, ranging from introducing newer and more capable Chromebooks from Acer, HP, and Toshiba, to using Chromebooks as part of their educational initiatives. Designed to run Google’s Chrome OS software and revolving around web-enabled access to Google’s rich universe of online SaaS applications like Google Apps, the Chromebook was initially dismissed by many, but Google has steadily continued to pour resources into their Chromebook efforts. Google released their first Chromebook laptop several years ago, and initial sales (and adoption) were modest.

Vmware horizon for chrome