What Is Horizon 8?

What is Omnissa Horizon 8?

Omnissa Horizon 8 provides a modern digital workspace experience, allowing end-users to securely access their virtual desktops or remote apps from anywhere, on any device, with consistent performance and policy control. It enables organizations to securely deliver full virtual desktops or individual applications to users, whether on premises, hosted in private cloud data center, or through public cloud services like Azure, AWS, Nutanix AHV and Google Cloud.

How Omnissa Horizon is redefining Digital Workspaces?

Flexible Deployment Options - Horizon 8 provides the ability to create a fully private, enterprise managed virtual desktop and application environment. Organizations have full control over the infrastructure, including compute, storage, networking, and security policies whether deployed on-premises or in a private cloud.

Superior User Experience with Blast Extreme - Delivers high-performance virtual desktops and apps using the Blast Extreme display protocol which enables secure remote access without requiring a traditional VPN. Optimized for various network conditions, supports GPU offloading, and delivers smooth multimedia, 3D graphics experiences.

Zero Trust Access with Enterprise-Grade Security - With deep support for Zero Trust security models, Horizon 8 integrates Unified Access Gateway (UAG), multi-factor authentication, smart card/SAML-based SSO, and contextual access control. This ensures secure, policy-driven access to desktops and apps without the need for a VPN.

Smart Resource and Cost Optimization - Horizon 8 introduces features like instant clones, just-in-time provisioning, and automated power management to minimize idle resource usage. This allows IT teams to scale up or down on demand, reducing infrastructure costs while maintaining performance.

Unified Digital Workspace Experience - With integration across the Omnissa End-User Computing ecosystem, Horizon 8 provides centralized policy control, application layering, user environment management (UEM), and real-time session monitoring streamlining the end-user experience and IT operations.

Omnissa Horizon 8 architecture overview

The core components of Horizon 8 include a Horizon Client authenticating to a Connection Server, which brokers connections to virtual desktops and apps. The Horizon Client then forms a protocol session connection to a Horizon Agent running in a virtual desktop, RDSH server, or physical machine.

Figure 1: Horizon 8 Overview

Key infrastructure components of Horizon 8

Horizon Client – Horizon client installed on a client device to access a Horizon-managed system that has the Horizon Agent installed. You can optionally use a web browser as an HTML client for devices on which installing client software is not possible.

Horizon Agent – Installed on the guest OS of the target VM or system. Horizon Agent allows the machine to be managed by Connection Servers and allows a Horizon Client to form a protocol session to the machine

Unified Access Gateway - Enables secure remote access from an external network to a variety of internal resources, including Horizon-managed resources. When providing access to internal resources, Unified Access Gateway can be deployed within the corporate DMZ or internal network and acts as a reverse proxy host for connections to your company’s resources.

Horizon Connection Server – Connection Server Authenticates and securely brokers users to their entitled virtual desktops and published applications.

Horizon Edge Gateway Appliance – Edge Gateway is a virtual appliance that connects a Horizon 8 pod to Horizon Cloud Services – next-gen. This is required when you want to use Horizon Cloud Service – next-gen control plane services, for example, subscription licensing.

App Volumes - Omnissa App Volumes is an application packaging solution that provides real-time application delivery and life-cycle management for digital workspaces. App Volumes does this by abstracting Windows applications from the base operating system and delivering those applications through virtual disks.

Dynamic Environment Manager- Omnissa Dynamic Environment Manager is a software solution for configuring and deploying end-user desktop settings.

ThinApp - ThinApp is a legacy application virtualization solution that packages Windows applications into portable, self-contained executable files (EXEs or MSIs)

Workspace ONE UEM - Omnissa Workspace ONE Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) is a single solution that manages all device types on all platforms. It incorporates modern device management, application management, and security to give IT teams control over the highly diversified device deployments found in so many organizations today.

Supported infrastructures and access control

Omnissa Horizon supports a wide range of infrastructure platforms to meet the needs of diverse enterprise environments. It offers seamless integration with VMware vSphere, Nutanix AHV, and Amazon WorkSpaces Core for automated provisioning, while also allowing support for any third-party infrastructure through unmanaged desktop pools. Whether in-house infrastructure, on the cloud, or in hybrid environments, Horizon provides the flexibility to deploy virtual desktops and apps wherever it makes the most sense for performance, cost, and scalability.

You can find details on the types of supported infrastructure platforms we currently support in the Horizon 8 product documentation.

Secure access to applications and desktops

Omnissa Horizon provides secure, policy-driven access to virtual desktops and applications across any device or location. It leverages enterprise grade authentication methods such as SAML, smart cards, and multi-factor authentication (MFA), along with conditional access policies and integration with identity providers. With encrypted Blast Extreme protocol, secure tunnelling, and optional VPN-less access, Horizon ensures that users can connect safely without exposing internal resources, supporting both compliance and a seamless end-user experience.

Figure 2: External connection with Blast network ports

Authentication and Access in Omnissa Horizon

Omnissa Horizon delivers robust mechanisms to ensure only the right users, from the right devices, at the right time can access virtual desktops and applications.

Unified Access Gateway (UAG) acts as a secure edge appliance that brokers external access into the Horizon environment. It enforces authentication policies, enables secure tunnelling for display protocols, and provides a demilitarized zone (DMZ) to keep internal systems protected from direct exposure.

The Horizon Client and Agent work together to secure the connection between the user endpoint and the virtual desktop. The client initiates the session and communicates with the UAG or connection server, while the agent installed on the virtual desktop ensures only authenticated and policy-compliant sessions are allowed.

Single Sign-On (SSO) integration enhances user experience without compromising security. By leveraging identity providers, SAML-based authentication, or smart card systems. SSO ensures users authenticate once and gain seamless access to multiple resources, reducing the risk of credential theft and improving operational efficiency.

Horizon supports endpoint and contextual access policies, enabling adaptive authentication based on device type, location, posture, or user role. For example, access can be limited or denied if a device is unmanaged or originating from a non-compliant network, adding a powerful layer of contextual security.

Display Protocol

Omnissa Horizon Blast Extreme is a display protocol built by Omnissa to deliver an immersive, feature-rich experience for end users across devices, locations, media, and network connections making it ideal for both enterprise and remote work environments.

Some of the key features of Blast Extreme include:

Uses advanced video compression (H.264 by default, HEVC optional) for efficient delivery of high-quality visuals.
Primarily uses UDP for speed and responsiveness, with TCP as a fallback for strict network environments.
Encrypts all display traffic using AES-128 or AES-256, aligned with enterprise security standards.
Works across thin clients, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and HTML5 browsers.
Dynamically adjusts to changing bandwidth and latency conditions for consistent user experience.

For more information on Blast Extreme, see Omnissa Horizon Blast Extreme Display Protocol.

Summary

Omnissa Horizon 8 is a robust, flexible, and secure platform for delivering virtual desktops and applications across on-premises and cloud environments. With support for instant provisioning, centralized management, and enterprise-grade security, it empowers organizations to modernize end-user computing while maintaining control and scalability. Whether for remote work, secure access, or hybrid deployments, Horizon 8 provides the tools IT teams need to deliver consistent and high-performance digital workspace experience.

Learn more about other Omnissa products

You will find a wealth of Horizon-related information on Tech Zone and Omnissa Docs, including but not limited to