Wow – It’s amazing how time flies. It has been a year since the launch of the VMware Horizon Cloud Service on Microsoft Azure, which brings together two industry leaders, VMware and Microsoft by offering desktops and apps in the cloud. When we first launched the service, we offered RDS-based desktops and applications with graphics support. This was met with great customer demand. But we didn’t stop there and added support for Windows 10 VDI, offering both dedicated and floating desktops with power management in order to maximize costs savings. For government customers, we added Azure Government support. We also introduced help desk for end-user monitoring and troubleshooting. As you can see, over the last year we have continued to innovate, adding new features and functionality that you have asked for in order to make it easier to deploy and manage virtual desktops in the cloud. But of course, we didn’t stop there. We are back with a new release of VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure with exciting new features.
New Microsoft Azure virtual machine Types for VDI and RDS
Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure now supports even more Azure virtual machines types for VDI and RDS, in addition to the existing virtual machine types we support today. You will now have even more flexibility and choice when deploying your VDI Desktop Assignments and RDS Farms, based on your use cases and Azure cost.
New virtual machines types for VDI Desktop Assignment:
- F-Series
- Ev3 Series
- Dv3 Series
New virtual machines types for RDS Farm:
- Ev3 Series
- Dv3 Series
Support for Microsoft Azure Disk Encryption for VDI and RDS
Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure now supports encrypting the virtual machine disk for both VDI and RDS. This leverages the native Azure capabilities and you can simply toggle Encrypt Disks in Horizon Cloud when creating a new VDI Desktop Assignment or RDS Farm. Microsoft Azure Disk Encryption ensures that all the data on the virtual machine disks are encrypted at rest. If you are a security conscious customer or mandated by compliance requirements, then this feature will help address those requirements.
Windows 10 1803 and Image Optimization
Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure now supports Windows 10 1803, the latest version of Windows 10 to reach Semi Annual Channel. You can now use the latest version of Windows 10 for your VDI Desktop Assignments. In addition to Windows 10 support, Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure can now import an optimized image from the Azure Marketplace. This ensures that your image is optimized, providing the best end user experience. You can also choose to remove built-in Windows store Apps, also called App-X packages.
Horizon Cloud Control Plane Expansion
Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure now supports an additional Control Plane instance located in Australia. This expansion ensures data locality for Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) customers. This is in addition to our existing Control Plane instances in the United States and Germany.
With the addition of the Control Plane instance in Australia, Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure also supports deploying into the Microsoft Azure Australia Central regions, which are used by government agencies in Australia and New Zealand. This allows government customers to deliver VMware Horizon Cloud virtual desktops and applications from Microsoft Azure over the Australian Government ICON network.
VMware Identity Manager Cloud
Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure now supports the ability to automate the creation of an Identity Manager Cloud Tenant which is part of Workspace ONE. VMware Identity Manager integrates with VMware Horizon Cloud to provide a simple and secure enterprise platform that allows end users to access their applications, data and services from any device, anywhere. Both platforms were built to integrate with each other, which provides a single user interface (UI) through the Workspace ONE enterprise catalog, to deliver applications to end users. VMware Identity Manager also provides single sign-on (SSO) for both desktops and applications along with multi-factor authentication functionality.
And more
But that’s not all, you can now select existing subnets on the Azure VNet during the deployment of VMware Horizon Cloud on Azure and you can utilize Internal Unified Access Gateway to support internal user access.
Learn More
Eager to find out more? Check out the following –
- VMware Horizon Cloud for tutorials, datasheets, FAQs, videos, and more
- VMware Support Community for questions and discussions with VMware team
- 45-day Trial of Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure
- Test Drive – Contact your VMware sales rep to schedule Test Drive access
