Horizon alternatives
This guide gives IT and business leaders a practical roadmap for replacing Horizon, covering the leading VDI and DaaS alternatives and outlining the key steps for evaluation, comparison, and a successful migration.
Introduction
The 2023 acquisition of VMware by Broadcom introduced significant changes to licensing, product bundling, and support, prompting a widespread reassessment of end-user computing (EUC) strategies across the industry.
Understanding the current landscape of alternatives is now critical for controlling costs, improving operational efficiency, and delivering a superior user experience.
Disclaimer: Content referencing Omnissa products is based on public information from the Omnissa website, current as of the last article update. For the latest product details and further inquiries, please consult the official Omnissa website.
Why are organizations looking for alternatives to Omnissa Horizon?
Many long-time VMware customers are exploring other platforms due to shifts in strategy, pricing, and support that may no longer align with their business or technical goals.
According to a recent Gartner report, The Future of VMware’s EUC Products, concerns about licensing changes, reduced support, and a possible slowdown in innovation are prompting businesses to explore alternatives to VMware Horizon (now Omnissa). This evaluation is driven by a combination of immediate pain points and long-term strategic objectives for a more flexible and cloud-integrated future.
What are the common pain points for enterprise Horizon customers?
- Licensing and contractual uncertainty: Following the Broadcom acquisition, VMware's end-user computing (EUC) offerings were divested to the private equity firm KKR, forming the new company Omnissa. Omnissa is now fully responsible for the strategy, development, sales, and support of Horizon, which introduces new risks. As Gartner notes, "products may be enhanced, deprecated, or discontinued," and changes in partner strategy could require significant adjustments to your dependent infrastructures. This unpredictability in spending is a primary driver for seeking more cost-effective and transparent alternatives.
- Operational complexity and risk: With most Horizon deployments relying on VMware’s hypervisor vSphere, which remains controlled by Broadcom, things get more complicated. This separation means you are left managing two separate companies and relationships, creating strategic uncertainty and potentially increasing total ownership costs. This new reality reinforces Gartner's advice for customers to create contingency plans "that include assessment of costs and risks for moving to alternative products.”
- Pressure to simplify and align with the cloud: Beyond the recent industry shifts, many IT teams seek to offload the operational burden of managing complex VDI infrastructure. Adopting fully managed, cloud-native desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) solutions allows organizations to reduce their infrastructure footprint, simplify administration, and better align their end-user computing strategy with their primary cloud provider, such as Microsoft Azure or AWS.
How should an enterprise evaluate competitors to Omnissa Horizon?
A structured evaluation ensures you select a platform that meets not only your technical requirements but also your business and financial goals. To do this effectively, you should identify direct and indirect dependencies on your current Horizon and Workspace ONE environment and conduct a thorough risk analysis of potential product and pricing changes.
A complete comparison requires looking beyond feature lists to consider the total cost of ownership, user experience, and long-term strategic alignment. A key technical consideration is the underlying desktop virtualization technology, which directly impacts the scalability, performance, and overall efficiency of the VDI or DaaS environment.
What business-level factors should you consider?
- Infrastructure and Deployment Model: Do you need a fully cloud-based, on-premises, or hybrid solution to meet your organization’s operational and data sovereignty needs? Evaluate how each alternative supports your required deployment model.
- Cost and Pricing Structure: How does the total cost of ownership (TCO) compare? You must look beyond the per-user license and understand the full pricing model, including underlying cloud infrastructure costs and potential add-ons.
- Provider Stability and Longevity: Is the provider financially stable and committed to the platform's long-term innovation? You should ensure the alternative offers long-term value through a clear roadmap that includes automation, AI, and adaptability to evolving work needs.
- Service Level Agreements (SLAs): What guarantees are offered for uptime and support response? For example, Microsoft offers a 99.9% uptime SLA for underlying Azure infrastructure components such as virtual machines when deployed across Availability Zones, providing a financially backed guarantee of service availability.
What technical capabilities should you compare?
- Core Feature Set: Does the alternative support both virtual desktop (VDI) and application delivery, or just one of the two? Compare how each platform handles core VDI functions like image management, application layering, and user profile management. Furthermore, assess operating system support beyond Windows, as alternatives like Citrix and Amazon WorkSpaces provide native delivery of Linux desktops to accommodate developers and users of specialized applications.
- Scalability and Flexibility: Can the solution easily scale with your business and adapt to changing requirements, such as onboarding hundreds of users for a short-term project? Ensure the platform's architecture can support both scaling up and scaling down to manage costs effectively.
- Security and Compliance: How does the platform's security model align with your corporate policies? You should assess the native security features, such as multi-factor authentication, conditional access, and network controls, as well as the compliance certifications relevant to your industry (e.g., ISO 27001, HIPAA for healthcare, FedRAMP for federal government).
- Ease of Use and Management: Does the solution simplify management tasks and reduce the administrative burden on your IT team? Look for a centralized management console, automation capabilities, and intuitive workflows that don't require deep, specialized expertise for daily operations.
You can also examine Gartner’s peer reviews for invaluable, real-world perspectives on how different VDI and DaaS solutions perform in various enterprise environments.
Which enterprise-grade alternatives to Omnissa Horizon should I consider?
To simplify your evaluation, the following tables use Horizon as a baseline and break down the leading enterprise-grade alternatives. While each is a mature platform, the best choice will depend on your specific goals for cloud integration, cost, and technical capabilities.
| Omnissa Horizon (Baseline) | Microsoft AVD | Windows 365 | Citrix DaaS | Amazon WorkSpaces | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery Model | VDI/DaaS (Hybrid/Multi-Cloud) | DaaS (Control Plane in Azure) | SaaS (Cloud PC) | DaaS (Hybrid/Multi-Cloud) | DaaS (in AWS) |
| Stand-Out Strengths | Mature, feature-rich platform, strong hybrid cloud management, robust display protocol. | Deep integration with Microsoft 365, multi-session OS support, flexible pay-as-you-go pricing. | Simplicity, predictable fixed pricing, dedicated persistent desktops. | Mature protocol (HDX), robust hybrid management, broad feature set. | Strong integration with the AWS ecosystem, simple pricing. |
| Typical Limitations | Complex to manage, uncertainty due to acquisition, subscription-only model. | Requires Azure expertise, variable infrastructure costs. | Less flexibility than AVD, primarily for persistent desktops. | Higher licensing cost, can be complex to configure. | Limited to the AWS cloud, fewer enterprise management features. |
| Best-Fit Scenarios | Existing VMware customers with heavy on-premises investments and complex, hybrid VDI needs. | Organizations standardized on Microsoft 365 seeking maximum flexibility and cost control for pooled and personal desktops. | Businesses wanting simple, predictable pricing for dedicated, persistent Cloud PCs for individual users. | Enterprises with complex, hybrid environments or those needing advanced protocol features. | Companies heavily invested in AWS seeking a straightforward DaaS solution. |
While the summary table provides a high-level overview, the following detailed comparison allows your technical team to analyze specific capabilities. The table below directly compares how each alternative handles critical operational features, from display protocols and multi-session OS support to hybrid management and security integration.
| Omnissa Horizon (Baseline) | Microsoft AVD | Windows 365 | Citrix DaaS | Amazon WorkSpaces | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Display Protocol | Blast Extreme, PCoIP | RDP | RDP | HDX | PCoIP, WSP (DCV) |
| Multi-Session OS Support | Windows Server multi-session; (Windows 10/11 single-session only) | Yes (Windows 10/11 Ent) | No | Yes (Windows Server/10/11) | No |
| Hybrid/Multi-Cloud Control Plane | Yes | Primarily Azure, some hybrid via Azure Stack HCI | No | Yes | No |
| GPU/Graphics Instance Support | Yes (NVIDIA vGPU) | Yes (N-series VMs) | Yes | Yes (NVIDIA vGPU) | Yes (Graphics.g4dn) |
| Identity & MFA Options | Active Directory, Entra ID, Workspace ONE Access | Entra ID, AD, Hybrid | Entra ID | Entra ID, AD, Okta, etc. | AD, RADIUS |
| Built-in Power Management/Autoscaling | Yes (in Horizon Cloud) | Yes (Scaling Plans) | N/A (Fixed Cost) | Yes (Autoscale) | Yes (AutoStop) |
What does a migration from Omnissa Horizon involve?
Migrating from an established VDI platform is a significant undertaking that requires careful planning and execution. A phased approach ensures minimal disruption to users and allows your team to validate performance and functionality at each stage.
What is involved in the baseline assessment phase?
- Inventory Your Horizon Environment: The first step is to catalog all components of your existing deployment, including Connection Servers, Unified Access Gateways (UAGs), App Volumes Managers, and underlying vSphere infrastructure.
- Analyze User Personas and Pools: Map your users to their current remote desktop pools (e.g., persistent, non-persistent, application pools). This data is essential for designing the right-sized host pools or Cloud PC configurations in the new platform.
- Evaluate Profile and Data Stores: Identify your current user profile solution (e.g., Dynamic Environment Manager, FSLogix) and the location of user data. This will inform your data migration strategy.
How do you conduct a proof-of-concept?
- Deploy a Pilot Environment: Set up a small-scale, greenfield environment in your target platform, such as an Azure Virtual Desktop host pool.
- Migrate a Representative User Group: Select a small group of users from different departments to test functionality and performance with their daily applications.
- Validate and Test: Test application compatibility and measure key performance indicators (KPIs) like login times and application launch speed. Compare these metrics against your existing Horizon environment to ensure a positive user experience.
What is the best way to execute a parallel production rollout?
- Phased User Migration: Avoid a "big bang" cutover. Migrate users in manageable waves based on department, location, or user persona.
- Provide Dual Access: For a limited time, give migrated users access to both their old Horizon desktop and their new virtual desktop. This provides a safety net and a seamless fallback option if any issues arise.
- Communicate Clearly: Proactively communicate with users about the timeline, what to expect, and the benefits of the new platform. Provide training and quick-reference guides to ease the transition.
Know the TCO
This step-by-step wizard tool gives you the total cost of ownership for AVD in your organization.
How can Nerdio simplify a migration to AVD or Windows 365?
For organizations choosing to migrate from Horizon to the Microsoft ecosystem, third-party management platforms can dramatically simplify the process. These tools add a layer of automation and optimization on top of the native Azure portal, reducing administrative overhead and controlling costs.
How does Nerdio automate deployment and management?
- Accelerated Deployment: Platforms like Nerdio Manager for Enterprise can reduce the time to deploy a production-ready AVD or Windows 365 environment from weeks to just a few hours. This is achieved by automating the setup and provisioning of networking, identity integration, host pools, and FSLogix profile storage.
- Unified Management Console: Instead of navigating multiple Azure services, you can use a single, intuitive interface to manage all aspects of your virtual desktop delivery environment. This includes user assignments, image management, application delivery (via App Masking), and performance monitoring, significantly reducing the learning curve for IT staff.
How does Nerdio optimize cloud costs?
- Advanced Autoscaling: A key challenge with cloud-based VDI is managing infrastructure costs. Nerdio’s advanced, predictive autoscaling engine can reduce Azure compute and storage costs by over 50% compared to native tools by precisely matching resources to user demand, scaling session hosts up and down, and powering off unused VMs.
- Reserved Instance and Azure Hybrid Benefit Automation: The platform can automate the application of Azure reservations and Hybrid Benefits to the right VMs at the right time, ensuring you are always maximizing your cost savings without manual intervention.
See this demo to learn how you can optimize processes, improve security, increase reliability, and save up to 70% on Microsoft Azure costs.6
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