In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital transformation, companies across industries are under pressure to enhance their IT infrastructures and integrate cloud capabilities. Particularly in the public services sector, where the demand for reliable, scalable, and accessible systems is paramount, there's a need for seamless and efficient digital solutions. Based in Belgium, one such public services entity confronted the challenges of a maxed-out on-premises system and sought to harness the advantages of the Cloud.
We were happy to help. Through our collaboration, and using the innovative Horizon Cloud Next Gen, we extended their Horizon VDI on-premises framework to Azure.
Over the past few years, the client has embraced a cloud-first strategy and heavily invested in Microsoft Azure as their primary cloud provider. They are convinced of Horizon's value, based on their on-premises experience – particularly the benefits of App Volumes for application lifecycle management and the Dynamic Environment Manager for managing profile and user environment settings. The challenge is that this infrastructure is reaching its capacity, and the client wants to future-proof by expanding to the Cloud.
comdivision proposed a three-pronged solution:
1) To expand on-premises Horizon Virtual Desktops to the Azure-hosted cloud and ensure secure and easy access from anywere, a VMware Horizon Cloud Next Gen Pod was implemented.
2) Extend enterprise application lifecycle management and delivery with App Volumes from on-preimes to the cloud.
3) Provide access to Horizon Virutal Desktops was using Entra ID authentication and MFA, as well as a Universal Catalog approach through Workspace ONE Access (SaaS).
Through the proof of concept (PoC), we showcased the straightforward setup and centralized management of a Horizon Cloud Next Gen Pod. The IT team didn’t need to concern themselves with the setup and management of connection brokers, App Volumes managers, etc., as these were hosted and managed by VMware. This allowed the IT team to focus on adding business value, rather than managing infrastructure components.
With App Volumes on Horizon Cloud Next Gen, the client could maintain their advanced application lifecycle management as they had been accustomed to. We simply converted the existing applications to a VHD format without the need for repackaging, uploaded them to Azure, and they were ready for use.
Profile and user settings were managed using the Dynamic Environment Manager. We transitioned their existing DEM configuration to the Cloud, and it was immediately operational. In future setups, these configurations can be automatically replicated, allowing the client to manage DEM from a single, centralized location.
Finally, as part of the PoC, we established a universal catalog of published applications and desktops, which was integrated with Entra ID for authentication and secured via multi-factor authentication.
