As a DaaS offering, Azure WVD is highly cost-effective compared to scaling up a traditional virtual desktop environment in your own data center. With the business disruption during COVID-19, companies were trying to find ways to extend their remote work infrastructure while keeping their operating expenses low. Companies already on a Microsoft ecosystem, such as Windows 10 Enterprise or Microsoft 365, had additional incentives to make the shift; I will explain why further down.
Another driver for Azure WVD during this time is that it lets organizations control apps and data while allowing their employees to access those resources from their own devices. This is something that a traditional VDI/RDS environment can also provide; however, the cost advantage of Azure WVD, when combined with security and control, creates a winning combination.
The Azure Advantage
With Azure WVD, the infrastructure and management components of a traditional on-premises virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) disappears into the cloud—just like a dinosaur-shaped cloud merges back into indescribable formations on the backdrop of the beautiful blue sky on a sunny day. (Read my post on Windows Server/SQL Server end life for more dinosaur metaphors.) Thanks to this merging, Microsoft is taking back critical components of a traditional VDI, such as brokering, load-balancing, compute, storage, and diagnostics, from your plate—which will let your precious IT talent focus on other strategic areas with growth potential.
Hosting your desktops on Azure also means you get Azure’s state-of-the-art security features. Microsoft claims that Azure is considered the most secure public cloud platform, and Azure WVD provides the best DaaS security model for customers.
With Azure WVD, users can only access the virtual machines by going through the Azure Active Directory authentication system. This means companies can use multifactor authentication and conditional access according to their needs and depending on the employee profile. Also, Azure uses reverse connect technology that lets you run a virtual machine (VM) without keeping any inbound ports open. This means that the VMs on Azure WVD is not exposed to the Internet directly.
Know more: Azure Data Migration | Azure Windows Virtual Desktop | WVD Pricing
Regards, Bruce