Azure Virtual Desktop

Score8.4 out of 10

56 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Azure Virtual Desktop?

Azure Virtual Desktops are a comprehensive desktop and app virtualization service running in the cloud.

Categories & Use Cases

#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

25.8%

922 installations of 3,570

#2 most frequent

Finance and Insurance

14.4%

515 installations of 3,570

#3 most frequent

Manufacturing

10.7%

381 installations of 3,570

Mihail Marinov View profile

Project Liaison Manager in Customer Service at Keywords Studios (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Azure Virtual Desktop has been the go-to remote desktop management solution in two of the organizations I have worked for. It was central in enabling remote work for us during the 2020-2022 period, and is still crucial as far as ensuring contributors work within a trust-agnostic environment and for ensuring compliance. The scale of use was significant in both cases (all remote & hybrid workers).

Pros

Lightweight
Easily scalable
Easy to set up
Intuitive

Cons

High latency in some cases
Cost
Unexpected disconnections

Return on Investment

Immediately reduced value drift
Reduced security incidents by 85%
Cut down tool access delay in half

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Citrix DaaS

Other Software Used

Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Copilot

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Azure Virtual Desktop has been our replacement for Citrix XenDesktop. While we deploy laptops with VPN tunnels, we have always found the need to have some virtual desktop presence. It has its place in our DR Planning, as well as proving a valuable tool for temporary access during hardware issues. Although it is not heavily used, it can be scaled up to meet demands.

Pros

Provides excellent remote access method for non-firm hardware.
Since OS is multi-session windows 11, users receive a more familiar experience to their laptops.
Integrations such as FSLogix and Nerdio have led to a consentient user experience.

Cons

Logging and monitoring rely on Azure backends. A dedicated dashboard specific to AVD would be welcomed.
Learning curve upon initial deployment. Although I hear this is better now.
Some management and reporting tools are lacking. We supplement this with Nerdio.

Return on Investment

We already have M365 E3, so not having to purchase additional licensing helped cover our user pool.
Automatic scaling sets allow us to run what is actually needed, compared to having servers running constantly in our previous environment.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

XenServer

Other Software Used

Nerdio, Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake Storage, Azure Databricks, Azure Automation

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Citrix Desktop license become costly and not reliable in our infrastructure. Primary used this to solve the secure remote access and terminal desktops for external users.

Pros

Security, The Azure Desktop and applications run on Azure DC so data and network doesn't leave the could env.
Big one for us is scalability and cost control, while we have some heavy users in seasonal pattern so we can turn off and on VMs as it progress
Management overall is user friendly and easy to manage.
It's on cloud so local outage doesn't impact users.

Cons

Troubleshooting bit limited as it's running on MS cloud. You don't have that level of access to get the logs data.
App or ISO update management also complex compare to user management. It also hard to predict cost when you have inflex of usage. not really straightforward to tell which group/users are using most of the resources.
as I mention earlier, troubleshooting is limited. When you have peak hour usage, user may see some performance issues.

Return on Investment

Generally, Positive so far. From business objectives, we covered security, scalability and efficiency but implementing AVD.
User are able to work securely from anywhere and support hybrid model as well.
however, ongoing attention require to make sure you are not over sizing the host pools and cost remain in expected budget.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Citrix Gateway and Citrix Secure Private Access

Verified User

Manager in Information Technology (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We leverage AVD for all non-persistent desktops, this allows us to follow our cloud first strategy, this is leveraged in US-East region and support users globally.

Pros

easy setup
multiple configuration options
minimal latency

Cons

Capacity issues in specific regions
Cost between different cpu options
can be buggy at times

Return on Investment

AVD has allowed us to move additional applications to the cloud
AVD supports our organization globally running out of US-East
AVD has a better ROI now that Broadcom has changed pricing model to per core.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Azure VMware Solution and Amazon WorkSpaces

Other Software Used

Rubrik, AWS Backup, Azure AI Document Intelligence, AWS Storage Gateway

Zeel Pandya View profile

SAP ABAP Consultant in Information Technology at AeonX Digital Solutions (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Azure Virtual Desktop or AVD on large scale as a Common Shared desktop to showcase our test builds to end users. as we have a large team, we used separate instances for all builds. Azure Virtual Desktop played a vital role in removing this bottleneck. now we use a single AVD desktop for all the testing.

Pros

scaling
using our own image
seamless multi-session capabilities

Cons

UI can be updated
Higher DPI would have been welcome
lags on low end devices

Most Important Features

scalability
cost
ease of use

Return on Investment

saved a lot by removing individual instances
we can use one license for one system and essentially share it with as much staff as we want
we saved a lot on Microsoft products

Alternatives Considered

Remote Desktop Services and VNC Connect

Other Software Used

Remote Desktop Services, VNC Connect, AnyDesk

Azure Virtual Desktop

What is Azure Virtual Desktop?

Categories & Use Cases

Most Frequent Users

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Finance and Insurance

Manufacturing