Blog
Why Horizon VDI shops are migrating to Microsoft Cloud Desktops (and how to plan the move)
Broadcom's reset pushed Horizon costs up 200% to 1,200%. Here's why IT teams are migrating to Windows Cloud, and how to plan it.
Your renewal quote landed, but the number doesn't make sense. The platform you've run for ten years is now owned by KKR, the product is now called Omnissa Horizon, and the line item your CFO is asking about has tripled.
This guide is for IT directors, EUC leads, and platform owners weighing VMware Horizon alternatives in Microsoft's cloud desktop portfolio. Microsoft calls that portfolio Windows Cloud, the umbrella for Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD).
Why Horizon shops are leaving
The pressure on Horizon customers in 2026 comes from the compound effect of a licensing reset, a product transition, and operational pain that was always there but was tolerable when pricing was lower.
The Omnissa transition put Horizon's roadmap in question
In mid-2024, Broadcom spun out the End-User Computing division as Omnissa, a separate company. VMware Horizon became Omnissa Horizon. The product is still in active development, but a brand reset under new ownership has put Horizon's long-term direction in question for the first time in years.
For directors building a five-year operating plan, an unsettled roadmap is its own pressure. The platform decision now carries roadmap risk on top of cost risk, a combination many Horizon shops haven't had to weigh against alternatives in over a decade.
Pricing exposed operational pain Horizon admins were already managing
Horizon environments run with a familiar set of operational frictions.
Connection Servers and Unified Access Gateways need patching and capacity planning, App Volumes packaging is its own workflow, and Dynamic Environment Manager profile drift takes time to diagnose. Image refresh cycles ripple through Instant Clone pools, and cost attribution back to business units is largely a spreadsheet exercise.
When pricing was reasonable, these were acceptable trade-offs. At three times the cost, they're not.
Where Horizon VDI shops are going: Microsoft Cloud Desktops
The dominant destination for Horizon migrations is Microsoft Cloud Desktops, which give IT teams a path to fixed per-user desktops with Windows 365, flexible pooled desktops with AVD, or a mix of both.
That flexibility allows Horizon shops to match desktop type to workload rather than carry the same operational model at a higher price.
The DaaS market as a whole is moving in the same direction, projected to grow from $4.3 billion in 2025 to $6.0 billion by 2029, with cloud desktop models capturing the bulk of new and migrating workloads.
Microsoft's two cloud desktop products live under the Windows Cloud umbrella:
- Windows 365 is the fixed monthly per-user Cloud PC. Microsoft manages the underlying infrastructure, and the per-user economics are predictable from day one.
- Azure Virtual Desktop is consumption-based and runs in the customer's Azure tenant. It supports multi-session pooled desktops, custom images, and full control over compute, storage, and networking.
The two are distinct products. Both run inside Azure, deliver Windows 11 Enterprise, authenticate through Microsoft Entra ID, and connect users through the Windows App client. They don't share underlying control planes, gateways, connection brokers, or session agents.
Many enterprise customers run both. Windows 365 fits standardized knowledge-worker workloads where predictable per-user economics matter more than customization. AVD fits the workloads where you need control: shared multi-session pools, specialized images, RemoteApp delivery, and BYO compute sizing. Some workloads call for side-by-side deployment, which is how many enterprise migrations actually land.
AVD access rights also come bundled with the Microsoft 365 SKUs the customer already pays for, which can flip the per-user license math when scoping the move. Per Microsoft's licensing news, Microsoft 365 E3, E5, and E7, plus Business Premium and several Education and Frontline tiers, all include AVD access entitlements. For organizations already on Microsoft 365, the per-user license cost for AVD access is effectively zero.
Selecting the destination is only part of the decision. Getting image management, scaling, application delivery, and cost control right at enterprise scale is where many teams stall. Nerdio Manager is one option teams use to handle that operational work.
The financial case for moving off Horizon
A credible Horizon-to-Microsoft cost case comes down to three layers: Azure infrastructure consumption, Microsoft access and licensing, and day-to-day operational management.
Looking at them separately makes it easier to see what drives spend, what is already covered by existing licensing, and which controls affect each part of the total cost.
Azure compute, storage, and networking are the first layer. Unmanaged AVD consumption can spiral. Session host VMs that stay running overnight with zero active sessions, overprovisioned host pools, and premium storage tiers attached to stopped-and-deallocated machines all bleed budget. This is the layer Nerdio Manager addresses.
Microsoft access and licensing are the second layer. AVD access rights are typically already included through the Microsoft 365 entitlements the organization owns; AVD pricing breaks this down by SKU. Windows 365 is a fixed monthly per-user line item. Both are predictable once mapped to the user population.
Operational management is the third layer. The technology choice doesn't deliver savings on its own. The savings come from applying the right operational controls consistently across the desktop estate.
A Forrester Total Economic Impact study commissioned by Microsoft in June 2025 projected a 94% to 217% ROI over three years for a composite 2,000-employee organization moving to Windows 365 and AVD, with a net present value between $3.2 million and $7.4 million. The same modeling projected infrastructure cost avoidance of $722,000 to $1.5 million over three years. Provisioning time dropped by 80% to 85% with Windows 365, and new employee device wait time fell from several hours to about 10 to 30 minutes.
The key cost levers are:
- Multi-session pooled desktops over personal desktops where workloads allow
- Azure auto-scaling to power down and deallocate VMs when sessions drop below threshold
- Right-sizing host pools to match actual demand rather than peak theoretical capacity
- Dynamic storage tier switching from premium SSD to standard HDD on stopped-and-deallocated VMs
Pulling all four consistently across host pools, regions, and business units every day requires automation.
How to plan a Horizon-to-AVD migration
Once the destination and the cost case are settled, the question becomes how to execute your migration without breaking production.
Map your Horizon architecture to Microsoft Cloud Desktop equivalents
The biggest source of mid-migration surprises is treating "Horizon to AVD" as a one-to-one swap. The architectures don't map cleanly.
Horizon component |
Microsoft Cloud Desktop equivalent |
|---|---|
Connection Servers, Unified Access Gateways |
AVD control plane (Microsoft-managed service) |
Instant Clones |
AVD session host pools (multi-session pooled or personal), Windows 11 Enterprise |
App Volumes packages |
MSIX App Attach for cleanly packageable apps; Unified Application Management for everything else (WinGet repositories, Microsoft Store, plus MSI, EXE, and MSIX installers, including packaged .ZIP applications with auto-detected installers) |
Dynamic Environment Manager (formerly UEM) |
FSLogix Profile Container, with optional ODFC only if a separate profile solution already exists |
Blast Extreme remote display protocol |
RDP via the Windows App client |
Horizon Console |
Azure Portal + Microsoft Intune for Windows 365; Azure Portal + PowerShell for AVD (or a unified management layer) |
Two specifics catch teams off guard:
- Profile architecture: For new AVD deployments, Microsoft's FSLogix documentation recommends the single profile container configuration. That setup automatically includes Microsoft 365 app data in the same VHDX. A separate ODFC container is intended for environments already running a third-party roaming profile solution.
- Application delivery should be mixed: The base image handles universal apps. MSIX App Attach takes cleanly packageable apps. Unified Application Management covers everything else. Forcing one delivery model is what stretches Horizon application migration waves from weeks into quarters.
Getting those two decisions right early is what keeps migration moving without turning profiles or app packaging into the bottleneck.
Run a phased migration with parallel operation
A phased migration with rollback capability is what keeps cutover risk manageable.
- Discovery: Catalog every desktop pool by type, sizing, persistence model, application assignments, profile sizes, identity dependencies, and DEM policy mappings. Skipping this is the single biggest source of mid-migration scope surprises.
- Pilot host pool: Use the AVD setup guide to stand up a single host pool for a low-risk user group. Validate image configuration, FSLogix profile container mounts, and Microsoft Entra ID authentication.
- Profile validation: Test FSLogix containers with pilot users. Verify logon times, profile size behavior, and application data persistence. Use OneDrive Known Folder Move to capture desktop files and browser favorites before cutover.
- Application wave migration: Migrate application groups in defined waves using the mixed delivery model above. Validate each wave before proceeding.
- Parallel run: Keep the Horizon environment live while AVD absorbs increasing user load. Parallel operation is what gives you rollback capability if a wave goes sideways.
- Decommission: Only after all user groups are validated with confirmed profile integrity and application functionality.
Without migration tooling, those phases can stretch out. With Nerdio Migrate, customers like Mr. Cooper Group have moved more than 10,000 users off Citrix to AVD, with tens of thousands of users migrated across customers efficiently.
Plan for Horizon-on-AVS and Horizon Cloud Service
Two Horizon topologies change the migration calculus:
- Horizon on Azure VMware Solution (AVS) Many enterprise Horizon shops are already running Horizon inside Azure on AVS. The migration target is the same (AVD), but the network architecture, identity integration, and storage are already Azure-native, which compresses the discovery and pilot phases.
- Horizon Cloud Service on Microsoft Azure The Microsoft-operated Horizon offering is in transition. Customers running there should validate their service status and migration path with Omnissa before scoping a wave plan. The architectural translation is the same; the contractual and timing dimensions are different.
In both cases, the target architecture and the phased wave plan stay the same. What shifts is how much discovery work you can skip because you're already running in Azure, and how Omnissa contract terms shape your cutover timeline.
How Nerdio Manager fits a Horizon-to-AVD migration
Nerdio Manager for Enterprise is an Azure-native management platform that deploys directly into the customer's Azure tenant. It manages both Windows 365 and AVD at enterprise scale.
For migration specifically, Nerdio Migrate provides guided workflows for moving from Horizon to AVD in defined waves, with parallel-run rollback as a built-in option.
What the cost reduction evidence looks like
TechTarget's Enterprise Strategy Group conducted a 2024 economic validation commissioned by Nerdio. The study found that customers using Nerdio Manager achieved up to a 55% reduction in AVD costs compared to running AVD alone, plus a 50% reduction in IT admin hours.
Equitable Bank reported 74% compute savings per month across 1,900 users using Nerdio Manager's auto-scaling. Penn State cut AVD spend by 71% while adding more than 1,000 users simultaneously. Sage saw 62% to 65% VM cost savings (roughly $1.5 million annually) after displacing Citrix.
An ESG interviewee summed up the operational read: "I do not understand why an AVD customer would not use Nerdio. It is remarkably intuitive to use, removes much of the complexity of AVD, and pays for itself."
What the operational results look like
Horizon admins handle image updates, scaling, session host health, profile mounts, and cost attribution manually today. Nerdio Manager automates each.
- Auto-scaling that goes beyond native AVD. Patented multi-trigger auto-scaling evaluates active user count and real-time resource utilization simultaneously, then powers down and deallocates idle VMs during off-peak hours and switches OS disks between premium and standard tiers on stopped-and-deallocated machines. This is what turns the cost case into actual savings.
- Image updates compressed to seconds. Independent testing by Dr. Tritsch IT Consulting measured a custom image update at 5 minutes 9 seconds and 146 clicks in native AVD. In Nerdio Manager, the same task takes 37 seconds and 13 clicks. That's 88% less time and 91% fewer clicks. The operational benefit goes beyond speed; fewer manual steps means fewer configuration errors.
- Application delivery without portal sprawl. Unified Application Management deploys from a single catalog spanning WinGet repositories, Microsoft Store, and MSI, EXE, and MSIX installers, including packaged .ZIP applications that the platform auto-detects. Pushing an application to Windows 365 Cloud PCs runs in roughly 30 seconds versus the multi-hour timelines typical of native Intune deployment, and the same catalog covers AVD session hosts. The App Volumes workflow Horizon admins know gets replaced by one app catalog spanning both Cloud PCs and AVD session hosts.
- License right-sizing for Windows 365 Cloud PCs. Nerdio Advisor flags oversized Cloud PCs against actual usage and recommends Frontline license conversions, applying the right-sizing principle to fixed-rate environments where auto-scaling doesn't apply.
- Self-healing session hosts. Auto-Heal monitors session hosts continuously and automatically repairs broken ones, which is where after-hours support tickets come from in unmanaged Horizon and AVD environments alike.
Nerdio Manager handles Windows 365 and AVD side by side from one console. Same policies, same automation, same reporting, regardless of desktop type. For Horizon shops landing on a mix of both, which describes many enterprise migrations, that means one workflow instead of moving between the Microsoft Intune admin center for Windows 365 and the Azure Portal for AVD.
The decision window is now
KKR’s pricing reset isn't reversing. The Omnissa transition is still settling. Every quarter on Horizon, at the new licensing economics, is a quarter paying more for a platform whose roadmap is in question.
The teams executing this well start with a clear discovery phase, run a phased migration with rollback capability, and automate the operational work that made on-premises VDI expensive in the first place.
If you're scoping a Horizon-to-AVD migration, the Omnissa Horizon migration guide walks through the full architectural mapping and wave planning. To see how Nerdio Manager handles the migration workflow and steady-state operations, get a demo or try it free in your Azure tenant.
Resources
Learn more about Nerdio Manager
