Extending Horizon Cloud flexibility to OpenStack-based private clouds

As organizations look to optimize cost, control, and flexibility, OpenStack is gaining attention as a proven foundation for private cloud. With licensing models shifting and new infrastructure options emerging, many IT teams are taking a fresh look at how they deliver and manage workloads. For these teams, OpenStack provides a way to maintain operational consistency while enabling greater deployment flexibility. 

Omnissa now supports OpenStack-based infrastructure through the Horizon Cloud OpenStack Edge, giving customers more choice in where they run Horizon virtual desktops and apps.  This capability, now in beta, extends Horizon Cloud to private cloud environments built on OpenStack, delivering a consistent operational model while expanding deployment options. 

Connecting Horizon Cloud to OpenStack infrastructure 

At the core of this capability is a communication layer built into the Horizon Cloud OpenStack Edge that leverages the Horizon Cloud thin edge architecture. The thin edge acts as a secure connection point between Horizon Cloud and on-premises environments, allowing the platform to communicate directly with a customer’s OpenStack infrastructure. The OpenStack Edge handles discovery, provisioning, and lifecycle management of virtual machines running on OpenStack. 

Through this architecture, Omnissa bridges on-premises and cloud environments so that an OpenStack-based deployment operates like any other Horizon Cloud environment, whether it’s running on Azure, AWS, or any other supported cloud platform. This gives IT teams the freedom to run Horizon where it makes the most sense without rearchitecting environments or adding complexity. 

Figure 1. The Horizon Control Plane connects to OpenStack-based infrastructure through Horizon Edge, enabling unified management, provisioning, and monitoring of virtual desktops and applications across environments. 

Bringing the Horizon Cloud experience to OpenStack 

By combining Horizon Cloud with OpenStack, organizations gain the flexibility of a private cloud with the simplicity of a managed desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) platform. Let’s explore what this integration means and the value it delivers 

Private cloud control with public cloud simplicity 

As a managed DaaS solution, Horizon Cloud is powered by the Horizon Control Plane, which connects Horizon Cloud services across on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud deployments. This architecture brings the simplicity and elasticity of public cloud to OpenStack-based private clouds. Through the Horizon Cloud control plane, IT teams can discover and visualize their OpenStack resources including networks, datastores, clusters, and images directly in the cloud. They can choose where virtual desktops and apps are deployed, automate provisioning through APIs, and dynamically scale capacity as demand grows. And they don’t have to worry about managing the Horizon infrastructure because those services are operated and maintained through the Horizon Cloud control plane. The result is a consistent operational experience that combines OpenStack’s flexibility and cost efficiency with Horizon Cloud’s simplified management and scalability. 

Flexible cost model 

Organizations gain greater choice in how they deploy and grow their private cloud. By combining Horizon Cloud with OpenStack, they can extend Horizon Cloud to their own data center infrastructure, using their existing hardware to create a cost-effective private cloud foundation. Because OpenStack is based on open source, it avoids traditional licensing costs and remains cost-efficient. And since it’s community-driven, the codebase continues to evolve with ongoing improvements in performance, scalability, and security. The joint solution gives IT teams the flexibility to create a cost-effective solution for deploying virtual desktops and applications that aligns with both business and budget priorities. 

Modern operational efficiency 

OpenStack’s modular architecture and open APIs let IT teams integrate Horizon Cloud into their existing automation and management frameworks. This flexibility allows them to shape provisioning, patching, and upgrade workflows around their own operational standards.  Combined with Horizon Cloud’s centralized control plane and API-driven approach, the solution delivers a highly adaptable platform that evolves with organizational needs, reducing manual effort and accelerating time to value. 

Consistent, high-performance user experience 

Whether desktops are deployed in a public cloud or OpenStack-based private cloud, users benefit from a consistent and responsive experience. Horizon Cloud’s Blast delivery protocol ensures smooth performance for high-res graphics and visually intensive workloads, while OpenStack provides the scalable, high-performance infrastructure that keeps those sessions running reliably as environments grow. Together, they deliver the responsiveness, visual quality, and reliability employees expect. 

Expanding choice through OpenStack partnerships 

Omnissa’s OpenStack integration is part of a growing ecosystem that broadens Horizon’s  supported deployment models, giving customers more flexibility in where they run.  Through partnerships with Platform9, Rackspace, and other OpenStack infrastructure providers, Omnissa gives customers more choice in how they deploy and manage private cloud environments. The solution creates a flexible, enterprise-ready foundation for delivering secure, high-performance virtual desktops and apps. 

Delivering simplicity and flexibility through Horizon Cloud and OpenStack 

With OpenStack support, Omnissa extends Horizon Cloud to new infrastructure options, enabling customers to choose the environment that best fits their operational needs. The OpenStack Edge brings private cloud environments into the same simplified control model used across Horizon Cloud deployments, giving IT teams a unified way to deliver desktops and apps on the infrastructure of their choice.  

Join our beta to see how easily Horizon Cloud can extend to your private cloud OpenStack environment. Contact us at getHorizonCloudWithOpenStackBeta@omnissa.com