How Azure Virtual Desktop is making remote working easier and more secure

Think of Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) as your familiar Windows desktop, but in the cloud. It’s been the most popular IT trend of the past 12 months and at Fusion we’re performing new installations every week, enabling business users to work seamlessly from any device, anytime and anywhere. 

For techies like us who oversee your network, AVD brings improved security and reduced management overhead, which keeps your IT support costs low. For users, it means improved productivity within their familiar desktop environment, flexible remote working and the ability to user their own devices securely. 

Who can benefit from Azure Virtual Desktop?

Built on Microsoft’s Azure platform, AVD provides full access to Microsoft Windows, Outlook and all of your favourite desktop applications, regardless of where your employees are located. That’s why it’s fast becoming the solution of choice for businesses with a varied range of requirements. 

• Multi-site and remote workers 

The number of employees operating every day from the same fixed office on the same desktop PC is decreasing by the day. In these times of hybrid working, AVD allows companies to provide staff access to their files, folders and applications from any internet-connected device, safe in the knowledge that all data remains within the confines of their business network. 

• BYOD and OS variety  

Organisations who have struggled to implement a BYOD (bring your own device) policy due to concerns over security and multi-platform support, are now embracing AVD to overcome these challenges. As a fully managed virtualisation solution in the cloud, users can access Azure Virtual Desktop via all major operating systems – Windows, MacOS, iOS and Android – as well as through most modern browsers thanks to its HTML5 support. 

• Line of business applications that are not cloud-compliant 

When it comes to full cloud migrations, many businesses have been held back by mission-critical line of business applications that still require a traditional client server environment to function. Now with Azure Virtual Desktop, any business software can be run on a virtual apps server with AVD’s (Windows 10 desktops) connecting to them as they would on your local network. 

• High staff turnover or rapid expansion 

For businesses with a large seasonal workforce or who have high staff turnover, AVD provides a far simpler way to add and remove new users. The flexibility of its licensing model makes it highly scalable, and you only ever pay for the capacity you are currently using.  

• Migration away from current VDI platform 

Microsoft Azure environments are quick to deploy with no lead time for new infrastructure or physical hardware installations to factor in. This makes migration away from a traditional data centre VDI solution easier and more cost-effective. Once you have considered your current and future usage requirements, you’re straight into the configuration phase. 

Virtualisation made simple 

For many years, virtualisation has been recommended as a solution to offer centralised management and security of users’ desktops whilst also reducing management overhead. This technology separates your operating systems, data and local apps from local hardware, running them instead on a remote server. For this reason, one of its main appeals has been the reduced risk that confidential information will be left on a personal device. 

That said, a desktop virtualisation environment has traditionally been expensive and complex to deliver. Projects could take weeks and sometimes months to implement successfully, and users were often faced with inferior performance as a result, when compared to their local desktop experience.  

With Azure Virtual Desktop, all of this complexity goes away. Using the Microsoft Azure platform, Fusion can deploy your remote desktop infrastructure swiftly with the components required to manage at scale – such as your gateway, broker, diagnostics and load balancing – all within a fully managed service.  

All of your virtual machines (VMs) on the AVD service communicate over a secure outbound connection, you’ll benefit from unlimited capacity and you can also choose any size VM in Azure and vary the density of users based on the workload. 

An improved user experience 

Most importantly of all, Azure Virtual Desktop offers a much-improved experience over legacy terminal services such as Remote Desktop Services (RDS). There’s no longer any compromise between their virtual desktop productivity and what they would experience with a locally hosted desktop on their PC. It’s the same. 

In Windows 10 for example, your full collection of apps will run as normal. Fully integrated with the start menu, you can pin them to your task bar in the usual way, as well as copying, pasting and snapping them side by side. They look and feel like local apps. 

What’s more, your users do not need to operate from a PC. Connecting via a Mac, an iPad, an iPhone, your Android or even a web browser, the experience will be the same. 

Your files are always at your fingertips because users’ profile data will attach in real time to any session on a VM as soon as they log in. So, it feels like your inbox and your local files are running from a local C drive. Furthermore, users have full access to their files stored in One Drive and File Explorer, so these ‘on demand files’ are also available to launch right away. 

Find out more – request a demo 

To discover more about the benefits that Azure Virtual Desktop could bring to your business, and the specific operational and security requirements of your business, why not call 01245 455510 and request a demonstration. 

Our friendly team of Microsoft Azure experts look forward to speaking with you very soon.