VMware Horizon Mirage is a layered image- management solution that separates the PC into logical layers that are owned and managed by either your IT organization or the end user. You can update IT-managed layers while maintaining end-user files and personalization. To maximize end-user productivity, snapshots and backups of layered desktop images enable quick recovery or rollback in case of failure.

When Horizon Mirage is installed on a PC, it scans the entire device and categorizes all of its contents into a number of logical layers. Horizon Mirage doesn’t move anything around on the PC. It just categorizes the data, so that your IT staff can perform more granular management of the PC. Horizon Mirage then sends a complete copy of that PC image to the datacenter and keeps it synchronized. If an end user goes offline, Horizon Mirage performs a synchronization the next time that user comes back online. That synchronization includes the updates IT has made to the IT-managed layers, as well as changes that the end user has made to the system.

Images managed by Horizon Mirage can run directly on a desktop or laptop – or inside a virtual machine with VMware Fusion Professional. End users can leverage local computing power, such as CPU or graphics, whether they are online or offline.