VMware Horizon Support Guide: EUC After the Broadcom Acquisition

Broadcom's EUC Gambit: What Happened to VMware Horizon

When Broadcom completed the VMware acquisition in November 2023, it was immediately apparent that the End-User Computing portfolio did not fit the long-term strategy. Broadcom is a B2B infrastructure software business focused on network management, security, and data centre virtualisation. Desktop virtualisation — which requires deep integration with endpoint devices, persistent user profiles, and consumer-facing applications — is operationally complex in ways that conflict with Broadcom's portfolio rationalisation objectives.

The Broadcom position on EUC evolved publicly over 2024: initial signals about maintaining the portfolio gave way to statements about a potential carve-out or sale. KKR ultimately agreed to acquire the EUC division — including Horizon, Workspace ONE, and App Volumes — creating a new entity (subsequently trading as Omnissa). For enterprise customers in the middle of Horizon renewal cycles, this created a commercial problem that is still not fully resolved: who owns your support contract, what are the continuity guarantees, and what does pricing look like under new ownership?

The practical consequence for most Horizon customers is a support landscape with significant uncertainty layered on top of already-elevated post-acquisition pricing. Broadcom had, before the EUC carve-out, already moved Horizon to subscription-only licensing and eliminated perpetual licence pathways for new purchases. Customers on existing perpetual licences found their support costs increasing at rates 40–120% above pre-acquisition levels.

VMware Horizon Version Matrix and TPS Coverage

Horizon's release cadence under VMware followed a predictable pattern: annual major releases with long-term service branch (LTSB) designations for customers who preferred stability over feature velocity. The Broadcom and Omnissa transition has complicated the lifecycle roadmap — but for TPS purposes, the version matrix below shows coverage status across the installed base:

For the vast majority of enterprise Horizon customers, the relevant versions are 7.13 LTSB through 2309 LTSB — the long-term service branches that were specifically designed for customers who wanted to avoid upgrade cycles. Third-party support provides full coverage across these versions at costs that are typically 55–85% below what Broadcom/Omnissa charges for equivalent maintenance.

What Third-Party Support Covers for VMware Horizon

Third-party support for Horizon is comprehensive across the core VDI platform components. The scope mirrors what VMware support delivered under pre-acquisition pricing — without the commercial uncertainty of the ownership transition:

Horizon Connection Server & Broker

Full support for the Horizon Connection Server infrastructure, including broker configuration, load balancing, Cloud Pod Architecture, and inter-pod connectivity. This includes the management and monitoring components, and integration support for persistent and floating desktop pool configurations.

VDI Protocol Support (Blast Extreme & PCoIP)

Both Blast Extreme and PCoIP display protocol coverage is included. TPS supports configuration, performance tuning, and connectivity issue resolution across both protocol stacks. This includes USB redirection, multimedia redirection, and bandwidth optimisation configurations.

Instant Clone and Full Clone Desktop Pools

Full support for both instant clone and full clone desktop pool architectures, including Composer-based full clones where applicable. Smart Policy integration for enterprise application delivery and session recording is covered.

Unified Access Gateway (UAG)

TPS covers Unified Access Gateway configuration and support for external access scenarios, including certificate management, RADIUS integration, and multi-site deployment architectures.

Horizon Cloud Connector (where deployed)

For environments that deployed Horizon Cloud Service connector components, TPS covers the on-premises components of the architecture, with clear scoping boundaries for cloud-side elements.

VMware Horizon TPS Cost Comparison

Horizon support pricing has seen two distinct inflationary pressures post-acquisition: Broadcom's initial contract restructuring in 2024, and the subsequent Omnissa transition pricing. The table below shows representative annual support cost comparisons for enterprise Horizon environments of different scales:

The 5-year figures are particularly significant in the Horizon context because the EUC market is genuinely in transition — Windows 365 Cloud PC, Azure Virtual Desktop, and Citrix cloud are all viable long-term alternatives that will take 3–7 years to fully evaluate and migrate to at enterprise scale. Third-party support buys you that evaluation time without paying Omnissa's subscription premium to maintain optionality.

Strategic Options for Horizon Customers

The Omnissa carve-out creates a specific strategic calculus for Horizon customers. You are effectively making a support decision for a platform whose long-term commercial trajectory is controlled by a PE-backed entity with a 5–7 year exit horizon. That is not a reason to panic — IBM i has been PE-adjacent for years and remains mission-critical. But it is a reason to be deliberate.

The common thread across Options 1, 3, and 4 is that none of them require you to commit to Omnissa's subscription pricing today. Third-party support creates the financial headroom and timeline freedom to evaluate alternatives properly — rather than forcing a rushed migration decision under renewal deadline pressure.

Workspace ONE and App Volumes

The Omnissa carve-out included the full EUC stack — not just Horizon. Workspace ONE (formerly AirWatch) and App Volumes are part of the same portfolio transition. The TPS coverage considerations differ by component:

Workspace ONE UEM (Unified Endpoint Management)

TPS covers Workspace ONE UEM for on-premises deployments. The UEM platform is well-established and covers Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Chrome OS device management. Most large enterprises with mature MDM/EMM requirements have a defined migration posture (typically towards Microsoft Intune), but TPS provides cost-effective support during that migration cycle.

App Volumes (Application Virtualisation)

App Volumes AppStacks and Writable Volumes are covered by TPS for on-premises deployments. This is particularly relevant for environments where App Volumes provides critical application packaging for instant clone pools — the App Volumes dependency makes Horizon migration more complex, and TPS coverage of the combined stack is cleaner than managing two separate support relationships.

How the Horizon TPS Transition Works

Moving Horizon support from Broadcom/Omnissa to a third-party provider follows a structured process. The timeline is typically 4–6 weeks for a straightforward deployment and can be managed to align with your support renewal date:

1. Environment audit (Week 1): Complete documentation of Horizon version, component inventory (connection servers, UAG instances, agent versions), pool configurations, and integration points (vSphere, Active Directory, storage). This forms the TPS scope baseline.
2. Coverage scoping and SLA agreement (Week 1–2): TPS provider confirms coverage scope, confirms version support status, and agrees response SLAs by priority tier. Typical SLAs: P1 (critical VDI outage) — 15-minute response; P2 (degraded service) — 2-hour response; P3 (advisory) — 4-hour response.
3. Parallel support period (Week 2–4): During the final weeks of the Broadcom/Omnissa contract, TPS team familiarises with your environment. This is not mandatory but is recommended for large, complex deployments.
4. Contract transition (Week 4–6): Formal TPS contract executed. All open issues transferred. Monitoring and alerting integrations updated to TPS provider contact points.
5. Ongoing support delivery: TPS operates as the primary support relationship for all Horizon platform issues. Quarterly environment reviews and advisory included in standard TPS scope.

Sector-Specific Horizon Considerations

Healthcare and NHS

Horizon VDI is pervasive in UK NHS trusts for clinical desktop delivery — particularly for EPMA, PACS, and clinical information system access. The clinical desktop constraint (specific application versions, specific GPU requirements for imaging) makes cloud VDI alternatives operationally complex. TPS support for NHS Horizon environments includes awareness of NHS DSP Toolkit, IG requirements, and clinical application integration dependencies.

Financial Services

Regulated trading and compliance environments frequently use Horizon for DLP-compliant desktop delivery where data residency and audit controls require on-premises processing. The PRA/FCA requirements around operational resilience (PS21/3) create additional complexity for cloud VDI migrations. TPS support provides continuity while regulatory assessments of cloud alternatives are completed.

Government and Public Sector

IL2/IL3 government environments and MoD-connected organisations often cannot use cloud VDI due to classification requirements. These environments are long-term Horizon customers for whom TPS is not a bridge strategy — it is a permanent cost-reduction mechanism for a platform they will operate for 10+ years.