Horizon Cloud on Google Cloud Platform is now in beta

A few weeks ago, at Google Cloud Next, we announced that Horizon Cloud on Google Cloud Platform was coming to Beta. Today, it's here.

But before we get into what's available and how to sign up, it's worth taking a step back because the "why" behind this launch matters more than the feature list.

The market has moved

The last two years have fundamentally shifted how enterprises think about virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). The VMware acquisition pushed a lot of organizations, particularly those running Horizon 8 on Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE), to reconsider what cloud-native VDI actually means. Running a hypervisor in the cloud was never really “cloud-native”. It was familiar. And familiar isn't always the right answer when renewal time comes around.

At the same time, GCP has become the platform of record for financial services, healthcare, and the public sector. Organizations that standardized on GCP for AI, data sovereignty, and global scale are asking one question: can their desktops run here too?

The answer, as of today, is yes.

Who this is for

Horizon Cloud on GCP was designed with four specific customer situations. If any of these sound familiar, this beta is worth your attention.

You're running Horizon 8 on GCVE and your renewal is coming up: GCVE has served a lot of organizations well, but it adds a hypervisor layer that costs money and adds operational complexity. Horizon Cloud on GCP runs natively on Google Compute Engine, no VMware stack underneath, no GCVE subscription on top. Your desktops run on GCP infrastructure, managed through the same Horizon Universal Console you already use. Same IT team, same management workflows, meaningfully different cost structure.

You're evaluating a move off Citrix: If you're evaluating alternatives to Citrix and your organization runs on GCP, Horizon Cloud on GCP provides an enterprise VDI option designed to simplify deployment and management. The platform supports persistent and non-persistent desktop pools, RDSH session hosting, Blast Extreme protocol, and Workspace ONE integration within your existing GCP environment.

You're in a regulated industry with data residency requirements: European financial services organizations in particular have been telling us the same thing: they want Google Cloud, but they need to know exactly where their desktop workloads are running and why. Horizon Cloud on GCP deploys entirely within your GCP project, your VPCs, your zones, your data. Omnissa manages the control plane; you own the compute. For organizations subject to DORA, GDPR, or specific national banking regulations, that separation matters.

You're being pushed toward Windows 365: Windows 365 is simple, but simple has trade-offs like fixed pricing regardless of utilization, limited customization, and less control over where your desktops run and how they're managed. Horizon Cloud on GCP gives you the flexibility of a full VDI platform with the economics of cloud. You pay for what you use, you control the infrastructure, and you integrate with Workspace ONE UEM for a management experience that goes well beyond what a cloud PC subscription offers.

Windows 11 licensing, finally solved in the cloud

One of the persistent headaches of running Windows 11 desktops in a public cloud is licensing. Microsoft's bring your own license (BYOL) rules require Windows 11 to run on dedicated physical hardware. In a shared cloud environment, it means you either pay for Windows licensing through the cloud provider or you figure out Sole-Tenant Nodes yourself. We built the orchestration for this directly into Horizon Cloud on GCP. IT teams can create and manage Google Cloud Sole-Tenant Node Groups right from the Horizon Universal Console so no manual GCP configuration required. Define your node template, set CPU overcommit, and Horizon handles placement automatically. Your Windows 11 VMs land on dedicated hardware, your BYOL compliance is met, and your team doesn't have to become GCP infrastructure experts to make it work.

The Omnissa platform: Desktop management meets enterprise UEM

Delivering a desktop is one thing. Managing it at scale, keeping it patched, keeping it compliant, keeping the employee experience high, is where most VDI deployments either win or struggle. Horizon Cloud on GCP integrates with Workspace ONE UEM from day one. Persistent Windows 11 desktops enroll automatically, giving IT a single place to manage policy, push software, enforce compliance, and support users. When something goes wrong, Workspace ONE Assist lets helpdesk staff view or control a GCP-hosted desktop session in real time so no VPN, no complexity, same experience as supporting a physical laptop.

And with Omnissa Intelligence, you get digital employee experience (DEX) telemetry from your GCP desktops alongside everything else in your fleet. CPU utilization, login duration, app performance surfaced in the same dashboards, feeding the same automated remediation workflows. Your virtual desktops on GCP aren't a separate silo to manage. They're part of the platform.

Get started today

The Beta is open and self-service. Here's how to get in:

• Register: Visit beta.omnissa.com/enter to sign up for Beta access.
• Watch the demo: See the full deployment workflow in action Horizon Cloud on GCP Demo.
• Read the documentation: Deployment guides, networking requirements, and image preparation steps are on Omnissa Tech Zone.
• Talk to your account team: If you want a guided onboarding session or a briefing on how GCP fits your specific roadmap, reach out to your Omnissa account representative.

If you've been waiting for a reason to try Horizon Cloud on GCP, today is that day. Register here.