The VMware Horizon Cloud Service delivers virtual desktops and applications using a cloud platform that is scalable across multiple deployment options. The overall environment consists of the VMware-hosted cloud service, your designated capacity, and the VMware software deployed into that capacity.

The Horizon Cloud Service provides a single cloud control plane from which you can choose multiple deployment options. At any time, you can dynamically switch options to adjust to use cases changes, employee moves, economic shifts, and so on. These options consist of Horizon pods using:

• Microsoft Azure capacity - Public cloud infrastructure from Microsoft Azure, an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider
• On-premises capacity - Hyper-converged infrastructure from partners such as Dell EMC, Hitachi, and QTC
• VMware Cloud on AWS capacity - Cloud-hosted capacity managed by VMware

The first option, Microsoft Azure, is the focus of this Quick Start Tutorial. You can connect your Microsoft Azure instance to your Horizon Cloud Service control plane for a comprehensive cloud-hosted solution for delivering virtualized Windows apps and desktops.

Setting up the environment involves deploying the required VMware software into your Microsoft Azure capacity. The deployed VMware software creates an appropriately configured entity called a Horizon Cloud Service pod, which pairs with the control plane. After the pod is deployed, you use the control plane to create RDSH farms and entitle remote desktops and applications to your end users, as well as to assign dedicated and floating Windows 10 desktops.

For more information, see the Horizon Cloud Service on Microsoft Azure datasheet.