Microsoft Announces Windows Virtual Desktop in Azure

Today I’m here with some exciting news out of Microsoft with the public preview of Microsoft Virtual Desktop. Virtual desktops are not a new invention and they are currently offered by multiple vendors.

Windows Virtual Desktop is comprised of the Windows desktops themselves and the application that you would pass out to users and the management solution for these are hosted in Azure. Inside public preview desktops and apps can be deployed on virtual machines in any Azure region in the US, with the management solution in data for these virtual machines residing in the US as well.

As the service moves closer to general availability, Microsoft will start to scale out the management solution and data localization to all Azure regions. Virtual desktops can be deployed with Windows 7 (with extended support) or Windows 10 for the workstation modes, and for the server versions you can run 2012 through 2019.

It will provide a full desktop virtualization environment inside your Azure subscription without having to run any additional gateway servers as you would if you were deploying this on other vendors’ platforms or in your on premises.

With Windows Virtual Desktop you can build custom images or pick some of the canned images provided in the Azure gallery. Images can be personalized and remain static with persistent desktops. There are also many configuration options, for instance; you want to run a single application for a connectivity for setting up a server/client type deployment of an application or you want to deploy pooled multi-session resources.

Another key point is you’re deploying this with significantly reduced overhead as you no longer need to manage the remote desktop roles like you would with remote desktop services on prem or with some of the other providers. You just have to manage the virtual machines inside of your Azure subscription.

There are many great use cases historically for virtual desktops in things like education and medical along with many others. If you’re not familiar with use cases for virtual desktops and you’d like to explore what’s possible, give us a call. We’re here to solve your challenges and see where the Azure platform can provide great opportunities for your business.

Click the link below or contact us to start a conversation today—we’re here to help you take your business from good to great.