Replacing Horizon Managed Services: How to Build an Internal Quest Headset Fleet Management System

Stop Relying on Horizon: Build an Internal Quest Headset Fleet Management System in 2026

Hook: If Meta’s discontinuation of Horizon managed services has left your IT team scrambling, you’re not alone. Large-scale headset fleets can break workflows fast—delays in provisioning, security gaps, and no centralized OTA update mechanism cause downtime and risk. This guide walks VR IT teams through a practical, production-proven approach to replace Horizon with an in-house Quest (Meta) headset management pipeline that covers asset provisioning, security policies, over-the-air updates, and telemetry-driven monitoring.

Executive summary — what you’ll get

Most important points first: by early 2026 many organizations moved from vendor-managed VR services to internal platforms for better control and cost predictability. This article gives a concrete blueprint: architecture options, an enrollment and provisioning pattern, a secure OTA update system, telemetry + monitoring pipelines, cost/scale guidance, and a migration checklist to retire Horizon-managed workflows. Aim to deploy a minimal viable fleet manager in 4–8 weeks and iterate for advanced features.

Why build internal Quest headset management now (2026 context)

Meta's decision to discontinue Horizon managed services and decommission Workrooms in Feb 2026 accelerated a trend already visible in late 2025: vendors reduce speciality enterprise support, and platform owners choose general-purpose developer tooling over managed services. The result: teams need self-service, repeatable, and auditable device management to keep VR operations predictable and secure. Building your own system yields:

• Control over update timing and app whitelisting.
• Security policies tailored to your network and data classification.
• Cost savings at scale by replacing subscription fees with predictable cloud costs.
• Custom telemetry aligned to SLAs and performance SLIs.

High-level architecture

Design your fleet manager as modular services so you can iterate. At minimum you’ll need:

• Enrollment & Provisioning — a service to onboard devices and assign assets.
• MDM Agent — a small app running on headsets handling commands, installs, and telemetry.
• OTA Distribution — secure storage + delivery for APKs/configs with versioning and rollout control.
• Telemetry Ingest & Storage — time-series or log store for device metrics and crash data.
• Fleet Console — UI for admins to manage devices, policies, and rollouts.
• Alerting & CI/CD — automated pipelines for builds, signing, canary releases, and alerts.

Example infra choices (pick one cloud or hybrid):

• AWS: S3 + CloudFront for OTA, API Gateway/Lambda or ECS for control plane, DynamoDB for inventory, IoT Core for device auth, CloudWatch/Managed Prometheus + Grafana for metrics.
• Azure: Blob Storage + CDN, Azure Functions or App Service, Cosmos DB, Azure IoT Hub, Azure Monitor/Grafana.
• GCP: Cloud Storage + CDN, Cloud Run, Firestore, IoT Core alternative + Pub/Sub, Cloud Monitoring + Grafana.

Step 1 — Asset provisioning & enrollment

Goal: make onboarding repeatable and secure. The approach below uses a mix of physical preparation (USB/ADB) and network-based QR or discovery when available.

Enrollment flow (recommended)

1. Pre-register serials — store headset serials and purchase metadata in your inventory DB.
2. Factory prep or ADB-powered staging — on a staging bench use ADB to enable device settings, install the MDM agent, and set a device owner profile if supported.
3. QR or provisioning token — generate a one-time enrollment token (JWT) per device and convert to a QR. The headset scans QR to complete enrollment and pair with the control plane.
4. Assign policies and groups — on join, control plane assigns a policy bundle (network, app whitelist, VPN, telemetry interval).

ADB scripting example to install agent and setup for a Quest-family headset (conceptual):

adb -s DEVICE_SERIAL install -r fleet-agent.apk
adb -s DEVICE_SERIAL shell am start -n com.company.fleet/.EnrollmentActivity --es token "ENROLL_TOKEN"

Notes: Quest devices are Android-based, but vendor APIs and security settings change. Maintain a staging image and test upgrades on a small canary group before full fleet rollout.

Step 2 — The MDM Agent pattern for VR

Unlike phones, VR headsets often have limited or vendor-specific MDM. A lightweight, open-agent approach gives the most control:

• Runs as a system/service app where possible.
• Uses mutual TLS (mTLS) or signed JWT for server authentication.
• Supports command set: install/uninstall APK, reboot, capture logs, change Wi‑Fi, set policy, factory reset, fetch screenshot or remote view.
• Telemetry batching to reduce network overhead (e.g., send every minute or on event).

Agent heartbeat + command poll (simplified):

POST /v1/devices/{id}/heartbeat
{
  "ts": 1700000000,
  "battery": 89,
  "temp_c": 41.2,
  "app_versions": {"com.company.app": "1.2.3"},
  "pending_commands": [123,124]
}

Step 3 — Secure OTA updates and rollouts

OTA is the core reason you need a fleet manager. Design principles:

• Host artifcats on immutable storage (S3/Blob) with versioned keys.
• Sign packages in CI so the agent verifies integrity before install.
• Use canary rollouts (5–10% of fleet) and automated rollback on regressions.
• Throttle downloads and prefer delta updates where possible to reduce bandwidth.

Example CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions (outline):

on: push
jobs:
  build-and-publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Build APK
        run: ./gradlew assembleRelease
      - name: Sign APK
        run: jarsigner -keystore ${{ secrets.KEYSTORE }} app-release.apk alias
      - name: Upload to S3
        run: aws s3 cp app-release.apk s3://vr-updates/app-${{ github.sha }}.apk
      - name: Create release entry
        run: curl -X POST https://fleet.example.com/releases -d '{"version":"1.2.3","url":"https://cdn.example.com/app-...apk"}'

Server-side, the release controller creates a rollout object and schedules it. Devices poll or receive push notifications for updates. For push, use FCM where possible — but verify vendor support for headsets.

Step 4 — Telemetry and fleet monitoring

Telemetry drives SRE-style operations for VR fleets. Track these baseline metrics per device:

• Uptime / last-seen
• Battery level and charging state
• Thermal readings
• App versions & OS build
• Crash rates and stacktraces
• Network latency / signal strength

Architecture for ingest:

1. Agent batches telemetry to an API Gateway.
2. Requests validated and put onto a message bus (Kafka / SNS / PubSub).
3. Stream processors write timeseries to Prometheus/Thanos, logs to Elasticsearch or OpenSearch, and events to DynamoDB/Firestore for inventory joins.
4. Grafana dashboards and alerting rules based on SLOs drive notifications to Slack/PagerDuty.

Example telemetry JSON:

{
  "device_id": "Q-0012345",
  "ts": 1700000123,
  "battery": 61,
  "temp_c": 43.1,
  "apps": {"com.company.app": "2.1.0"},
  "crash": null
}

Key dashboards & alerts to create first

• Fleet health: devices online in last 10 minutes.
• Canary release failures: crash rate spike > X% within 30 mins.
• Thermal / battery warnings: devices above safe temp or below 10% battery during sessions.
• Update progress: percentage of fleet updated and rollback confirmations.

Step 5 — Security policies and compliance

Strong device security is non-negotiable. Adopt these practices:

• Device identity: issue an X.509 certificate per device or use mTLS-backed tokens.
• Least privilege: restrict agent permissions to only required APIs; avoid root access unless strictly necessary.
• Network segmentation: use VPN or dedicated VLANs for headsets in workplace deployments.
• App whitelisting: only allow signed, approved apps to run.
• OS update policy: mandatory critical updates; staged auto-updates for non-critical patches.
• Audit trails: log all admin actions and device commands in an immutable store.

Tip: Use short-lived enrollment tokens and rotate device certificates. Treat headsets like any other enterprise endpoint.

Migrating from Horizon managed services — practical checklist

Phased migration reduces risk. Use this checklist:

1. Inventory: export asset list, apps, and policies from Horizon before sunset.
2. Staging: spin up internal control plane and enroll 10–20 pilot devices.
3. Parallel ops: run Horizon and internal system in parallel for 2–4 weeks while validating telemetry and OTA flows.
4. Policy parity: replicate critical policies and test enforcement (Wi‑Fi, VPN, app whitelist).
5. Canary rollout: use two-step canary (internal QA group + small production group) for first full OTA.
6. Cutover: switch remaining devices in waves, monitoring for anomalies and rolling back as needed.
7. Decommission Horizon: archive logs and close managed subscriptions after verification.

Scaling & cost considerations

Budgeting for a fleet depends on device count, telemetry volume, and update bandwidth. High-level rules of thumb (2026):

• S3/Blob storage + CDN: inexpensive — expect <$0.20 per GB-month for object storage and <$0.02 per GB CDN egress depending on provider and region.
• Telemetry ingestion (Pub/Sub/Kafka): cost scales with message volume; use batching and compression to reduce costs.
• Compute (API / release controllers): a handful of small instances or managed serverless functions suffice for thousands of devices.
• Monitoring & retention: long-term log retention can dominate costs. Keep high-resolution data for 30–90 days and downsample older metrics.

Example monthly cost estimate for 1,000 headsets (rough):

• Storage+CDN for updates: $200–$1,000 (depends on update frequency and delta updates).
• Telemetry ingestion & storage: $300–$1,500.
• API + control plane compute: $150–$800.
• Monitoring + alerts: $100–$500.

The takeaway: in-house systems usually pay back within months compared to per-device managed service fees if you manage >200 devices.

2026 trends to keep in mind

• Edge compute and WebXR: more apps will offload rendering and analytics to edge nodes, changing bandwidth and latency trade-offs.
• Zero-trust and device posture: security shifts to continuous posture checks rather than perimeter trust.
• Standardized MDM hooks: industry pressure is pushing VR platforms toward more standard MDM APIs — design your system to adapt to emerging vendor APIs.
• AI-assisted diagnostics: anomaly detection on telemetry will speed troubleshooting and automate rollbacks.

Advanced strategies & future-proofing

Once you have a stable core, add these capabilities:

• Delta updates & binary diffs — reduce bandwidth and update time.
• Remote session support — streaming device screens and remote input for trapped users (securely gated).
• Policy as code — store device policies in Git, review via PRs, and deploy via CI for auditable changes.
• Cross-cloud redundancy — store OTA artifacts in multi-region buckets and use multi-cloud failover for critical deployments.

Case study (condensed)

One mid-market consultancy with 800 headsets moved off Horizon in Q4 2025. They deployed an agent-based system hosted on AWS: S3+CloudFront for OTA, Lambda API gateway for the control plane, DynamoDB inventory, and Prometheus + Grafana for monitoring. They completed pilot enrollment in 3 weeks and full cutover in 7 weeks. Measured wins: 30% lower monthly cost and 45% faster update turnaround time thanks to prioritized canary pipelines.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

• Underestimating QA: VR apps and firmware updates can cause device bricks—always use staged canaries.
• Poor rollback planning: every release needs an automated rollback path triggered by SLO violations.
• Missing telemetry: lack of signal-level metrics prevents diagnosing real-world failure modes—collect enough data without over-sampling.
• Security shortcuts: avoid long-lived tokens and unencrypted OTA endpoints.

Quick reference: API endpoints your control plane should expose

• POST /v1/enroll — accept device token/QR and register device.
• GET /v1/devices/{id}/commands — agent polls for commands.
• POST /v1/devices/{id}/heartbeat — device posts telemetry.
• POST /v1/releases — create new OTA release and schedule rollout.
• GET /v1/devices?filter=… — inventory and status listing.

Call-to-action

Meta’s move to discontinue Horizon managed services creates an imperative: own your headset fleet before business continuity impacts your operations. Start by building a small staging environment and enrolling a pilot cohort—use the checklists and templates above to accelerate delivery. If you want a jumpstart, webdevs.cloud offers a fleet onboarding kit with an open-source agent, CI templates, and a reference AWS deployment to get you to pilot in under 30 days. Contact our team to get the kit and a 1-hour architecture review aligned to your fleet size and security posture.

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