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May 15, 2026

First-Gen Tenants - Horizon Pod Deployment Architectures with First-Gen Horizon Cloud

This article describes the different deployment architectures used by Horizon pods. Before onboarding a Horizon pod to first-gen Horizon Cloud, you must first identify its deployment architecture, which in turn determines the steps you must perform to deploy the Horizon Cloud Connector appliance into that architecture.

Important: Use this page solely when you have access to a first-gen tenant environment in the first-gen control plane. As described in KB-92424, the first-gen control plane has reached end of availability (EOA). See that article for details.

Horizon pods can be deployed using one of the following deployment architectures: on-premises, all-in-SDDC, or federated.

On-premises Deployment Architecture

Diagram of on-premises deployment architecture for Horizon Cloud Connector

When a Horizon pod is deployed on premises, the pod components are deployed as follows:

These pod components:Are deployed into:
  • Horizon Connection Server
  • Unified Access Gateway
  • App Volumes Manager
  • Virtual machines (VMs) for virtual desktops, published desktops, and published applications
The vSphere infrastructure of the on-premises vSphere-based SDDC

Note: When onboarding an on-premises pod to Horizon Cloud, you must deploy Horizon Cloud Connector into the vSphere infrastructure of the on-premises vSphere-based SDDC.

All-in-SDDC Deployment Architecture

Diagram of All-in-SDDC deployment architecture for Horizon Cloud Connector

When a Horizon pod is deployed into a cloud environment using all-in-SDDC architecture, the pod components are deployed as follows:

These pod components:Are deployed into:
  • Horizon Connection Server
  • Unified Access Gateway
  • App Volumes Manager
  • VMs for virtual desktops, published desktops, and published applications
The vSphere infrastructure of the vSphere-based SDDC within the cloud environment

Note: When onboarding an all-in-SDDC pod to Horizon Cloud, you must deploy Horizon Cloud Connector into the vSphere infrastructure of the vSphere-based SDDC.

For example, consider an all-in-SDDC pod deployed into VMC on AWS. In this case:

  • All pod components reside within the vSphere infrastructure of VMC on AWS.
  • You must deploy Horizon Cloud Connector into the vSphere infrastructure of VMC on AWS

Federated Deployment Architecture

Diagram of federated deployment architecture for Horizon Cloud Connector

When a Horizon pod is deployed into a cloud environment using federated architecture, the pod components are deployed as follows:

These pod components:Are deployed into:
VMs for virtual desktops, published desktops, and published applicationsThe vSphere infrastructure of the vSphere-based SDDC within the cloud environment
  • Horizon Connection Server
  • Unified Access Gateway
  • App Volumes Manager
The native cloud infrastructure, outside the vSphere-based SDDC

Note: When onboarding a federated pod to Horizon Cloud, you must deploy Horizon Cloud Connector into the native cloud infrastructure outside the vSphere-based SDDC.

For example, consider a federated pod deployed into GCVE. In this case:

  • VMs for virtual desktops, published desktops, and published applications reside within the vSphere infrastructure of GCVE.
  • Horizon Connection Server, Unified Access Gateway, and App Volumes Manager all reside in the native Google Cloud Platform (GCP) infrastructure, outside GCVE.
  • You must deploy Horizon Cloud Connector into the native GCP infrastructure, outside GCVE.

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