Being able to quickly provision, purchase and deploy full Windows desktops from the cloud without the tedious management of physical infrastructure is very appealing, and our organization can benefit from this service as we move our data and apps to the cloud. Microsoft and VMware are two proven companies in the industry, and we have had a very positive experience so far as beta participants.

As the saying goes, good things come to those who wait. In May, we announced our intent to release the VMware Horizon Cloud Service on Microsoft Azure. This summer, an exclusive group of customers participated in our beta program, and finally, this August and September lucky VMworld attendees got a chance to see our team preview this new solution.

After much anticipation and excitement, we are happy to announce that the Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure solution is now generally available (GA).

Customers can now connect their own instance of Microsoft Azure to our incredibly intuitive Horizon Cloud control plane, to create a secure, comprehensive, cloud-hosted solution for delivering virtualized Windows applications and session desktops.

VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure includes a robust feature set and delivers a number of key benefits:

• Multi-Cloud Deployments: Gain the flexibility to choose between cloud capacity managed by VMware or bring-your-own infrastructure with Microsoft Azure.
• Low-Cost, Hourly Billing for Microsoft Azure Capacity: You have the ability to pair consumption-based pricing on public Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) with your Horizon Cloud service subscription.
• Global Footprint: From a single instance, manage deployments across Microsoft’s 40+ global data center regions.
• Easy Deployment: Automate deployment of Horizon Cloud service components. Integration with Microsoft Azure Marketplace allows you to import a Windows Server image on which the necessary agents get automatically applied.
• Simplified Management: Always maintain the latest version of Horizon Cloud. Self-schedule upgrades, under five minutes, for components on Microsoft Azure via Blue-Green upgrades.
• Superior Architecture: Get a multi-tenant architecture built for the cloud, a cloud control plane separate from the data path—avoiding unnecessary latency and maintaining business continuity—and Unified Access Gateway—deployed automatically in Microsoft Azure.
• Simple Offer: Included in one, simple offer are remote published desktops and applications, VMware Unified Access Gateway and VMware User Environment Manager.

If you missed a chance to see VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure in action, check out the recorded demo that Shikha Mittal, our product manager, put together. You’ll be able to see how easy it is to connect your Microsoft Azure infrastructure to the intuitive Horizon Cloud control plane.