More hypervisor choice with Horizon 8 on Red Hat OpenShift

Omnissa and Red Hat bring Horizon 8 to Red Hat OpenShift, as a limited availability offering, in a Limited Availability release, giving IT a lower-cost, KVM-based hypervisor choice for virtual desktops and apps.

In December, we shared that Omnissa and Red Hat were working together to bring more hypervisor choice to Horizon 8 customers. Today, we’re taking the next step: Horizon 8 virtual desktops and published apps can now run on Red Hat OpenShift, in a Limited Availability release with Horizon 8 2609.

For IT leaders facing rising hypervisor licensing costs, this offers a practical way to lower spend without replacing the VDI platform you and your users already know.

Lower costs, same Horizon experience

Red Hat OpenShift runs virtual machines (VM) as native objects using Kernal-based VM (KVM), the same trusted Linux kernel hypervisor found in leading enterprise platforms. That gives you a proven, cost-effective alternative to VMware vSphere for VDI and app delivery. Because the Horizon experience stays the same, you can reduce hypervisor costs without retraining your team or changing how you manage Horizon.

Migrate at your own pace

Cost pressure rarely justifies an all-or-nothing cutover, so Horizon 8 supports Red Hat OpenShift side by side with your existing hypervisors. You can start fresh on OpenShift, move workloads on your own timeline, or keep some workloads where they are today. Horizon follows your workloads, whichever hypervisor you choose.

Built for regulated and budget-conscious environments

Government and federal teams often need hypervisors that don't depend on cloud connectivity, and educational institutions frequently operate under tight budgets. Horizon 8 on Red Hat OpenShift delivers a hypervisor option built for those requirements: customer-managed, low-overhead desktop and app virtualization that doesn’t require cloud connectivity.

One view across VMs and containers

If your teams already run containers on OpenShift, you can manage Horizon 8 desktops and apps with the same OpenShift tools and processes. The result is one place to see your combined VDI and container estate, with less tool sprawl for IT. OpenShift serves strictly as the virtualization platform for your VDI and app workloads, so it doesn't change how you deploy Horizon infrastructure itself.

Top features in the Limited Availability release

With Horizon 8 on Red Hat OpenShift, you can:

• Run Connection Server, Unified Access Gateway, and Horizon Edge natively on Red Hat OpenShift, so you manage VDI alongside your other OpenShift workloads instead of running a separate stack
• Create automated persistent and non-persistent single-session desktop pools with floating and dedicated assignments for Windows client operating systems (OS)
• Create automated Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) farms with Windows Server to deliver multi-session desktops and applications, with automated provisioning
• Give single-session desktops access to virtual GPU (vGPU), based on the GPU profile exposed in the parent VM

Horizon 8 2609 availability

Horizon 8 on Red Hat OpenShift is available as a Limited Availability release in Horizon 8 2609. This release gives early adopters hands-on access, and your feedback will help shape the path to broader availability. It also reflects our commitment to an open and integrated ecosystem that gives you the flexibility to use the solutions that best fit your operational model.

Ready to explore? Talk to your Omnissa account team about joining the Limited Availability release or email us at getUpdatesOnHorizon8withRedHatOpenShift@omnissa.com to stay informed.