NERDIO GUIDE
Introduction
As announced at Microsoft Ignite 2025, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) for hybrid environments expands AVD’s infrastructure capabilities, enabling organizations to run AVD session hosts on a broader range of on-premises infrastructure via Azure Arc. Designed to meet customers where they are on their Azure cloud journey, this expanded AVD capability empowers IT administrators to incorporate their on-premises VDI infrastructure, including AHV (Nutanix), Hyper-V (Microsoft) and vSphere (VMware)—with AVD. This simplifies migration away from legacy VDI solutions such as Citrix or Omnissa.
While only announced this time, this AVD expansion allows IT teams to move away from legacy VDI vendor solutions without requiring major immediate investments in on-premises infrastructure, which often delay or complicate the Citrix or Omnissa to AVD migration process.
Why do enterprises need AVD for hybrid environments?
Enterprises often maintain legacy VDI solutions, such as Citrix or Omnissa, due to the complexity of migrating from their existing hypervisors (AHV, Hyper-V, vSphere) to AVD-supported Azure infrastructure (Azure or Azure Local). The application, data, and user migration process is involved and requires extensive planning, testing, and execution.
AVD for hybrid environments solves this by meeting organizations where they are in their Azure journey, delivering AVD’s value without requiring an extensive migration of existing app and desktop infrastructure.
Key challenges addressed:
- Data Sovereignty & Compliance: Keep sensitive data on existing hardware to meet strict regulatory requirements (e.g., healthcare, government, finance).
- Latency Sensitivity: Run workloads close to end-users or backend databases to ensure optimal performance for high-demand applications.
- Existing Infrastructure Investment: Continue leveraging existing on-premises server and storage investments.
- Legacy VDI Complexity: Move away from bulky, expensive legacy VDI control planes (i.e. Citrix or Omnissa) while retaining existing on-premises infrastructure.
How will the AVD Hybrid architecture work?
Historically, AVD architecture consisted of a control plane in Azure and the infrastructure hosting the virtual desktop instances – running either on Azure or Azure Local, with Azure Local acting as the on-premises option. It is important to note that to utilize Azure Local on-premises, admins must meet hardware requirements, install the Azure Connected Machine Agent, and manage on-premises Azure Local instances through the Azure portal as part of AVD. While a viable option, some organizations expressed challenges in moving from existing on-premises VDI infrastructure to Azure Local. With AVD Hybrid the role of on-premises infrastructure is expanding to include non-Azure-based infrastructure such as AHV, Hyper-V or vSphere through the Azure Arc Connected Machine Agent.
The Role of Azure Arc
Azure Arc is a multi-cloud and on-premises management platform that is being leveraged to support on-premises resources in an AVD hybrid environment. The Azure Arc service connects to on-premises resources via the Azure Arc Connected Machine agent (Azure Arc agent) . Then the Azure Arc agent enables the Azure Arc platform to manage the on-prem VM as an Azure Arc VM. In an AVD hybrid environment, an AVD Azure Arc extension will also get installed on the VM. This extension will enable new or existing on-prem VMs to act as an AVD session host.
Connectivity Path:
- Azure Arc Service: An Azure-hosted multi-cloud and on-premises management platform that centralizes and simplifies the VM management across different hypervisors and clouds from one centralized location.
- Azure Arc Connected Machine Agent (Azure Arc agent): Azure Arc agent is installed on the on-prem VM to connect the new or existing VM to the Azure Arc service.
- AVD Azure Arc Extension: In addition to the on-prem VM communicating with the Azure Arc service via the Azure Arc agent, an AVD Azure Arc extension is also installed on the on-prem VM. This extension will permit that on-prem VM to act as an AVD session host.
What operating systems and licensing models will be supported with AVD for hybrid environments?
To meet customers where they are on their cloud journey today, non-Azure infrastructure support is only available for the following operating systems.
Supported Operating Systems:
- Windows 11 Enterprise: Supported on non-Azure infrastructure with the necessary Microsoft access licensing.
- Windows Server OS (all supported versions): Supported for single and multi-session server-based computing with the necessary Remote Desktop Services (RDS) access licenses (RDS CAL or RDS-SAL).
Multi-Session: Windows 11 multi-session is only supported on Azure and Azure Local infrastructure. Microsoft has not expressed any plans to extend Windows 11 Enterprise Multi-Session capabilities to AVD Hybrid.
*Note: Always reference Microsoft.com for the latest information regarding Microsoft AVD, AVD Hybrid, RDS, Desktop and Server licensing information.
What are the cost benefits of AVD Hybrid compared to legacy VDI solutions?
Legacy VDI solutions charge a premium for their advanced features but also for the development associated with many of the same components available in AVD today. For example, a legacy VDI solution, such as Citrix or Omnissa, charge for their broker, their gateway, their user authentication services, and their protocol. In the past those elements were commonly perceived as necessary replacements for VDI solutions and required for infrastructure hosted outside of Azure.
There have been two dramatic shifts in the industry that challenge that perception. First, Microsoft has invested heavily in their Desktops-as-a-Service technology in both Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop, with Gartner recognizing Microsoft as a leader in the Gartner DaaS Magic Quadrant for the last three years.
Second, the announcement of AVD Hybrid means that organizations leveraging non-Azure infrastructure on-premises will soon have the option to integrate their existing infrastructure with AVD. Microsoft has not announced pricing or licensing details for AVD Hybrid at the time of this publication.
Cost Optimization Drivers:
- Leverage AVD entitlement: The Azure-hosted AVD control plane (broker, gateway, etc.) is provided for eligible Microsoft license holders. This empowers organizations to leverage the existing AVD component without replacing them with legacy VDI vendor components.
- Hardware Reuse: By leveraging the existing on-premises servers and storage you are current using with your legacy VDI solution, you avoid the expense of buying new on-premises hardware that meets the Azure Local requirements and/or ensure that your existing infrastructure can realize its full investment lifecycle.
- Flexible Migration: You can migrate from legacy VDI providers to AVD at your own pace without physically moving data or virtual machines, reducing the risk and cost of migration projects, and aligning AVD with your organization’s cloud journey.
- Nerdio Manager: Nerdio Manager for Enterprise with AVD is a cost-effective alternative to costly legacy VDI solutions. Instead of replacing every AVD component, Nerdio Manager helps organization embrace the latest AVD innovation while simplifying the deployment and on-going management processes.
How will Nerdio Manager support Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid?
In addition to bringing our industry-leading automation, optimization, and management capabilities for AVD, Nerdio has committed to enabling the VM lifecycle management for AVD on non-Azure hypervisors. These advanced lifecycle management capabilities will simplify AVD management and automate the complex manual processes associated with both Azure and non-Azure hypervisor deployments. While Microsoft provides the AVD connectivity platform, Nerdio provides the operational engine to manage AVD at scale, across hybrid environments.
Key Nerdio Capabilities:
- Automated VM Lifecyle & Power Management: Unlike the native process which will require manual VM creation, deletion, and power management, Nerdio Manager will provide full lifecycle and power management of AVD session hosts on your on-premises infrastructure (such as AHV, Hyper-V, or vSphere) from the Nerdio Manager console.
- Unified Management: Manage your entire desktop estate including Windows 365 and AVD – Azure VMs, Azure Local VMs, and on-premises non-Azure hypervisor VMs —from a centralized management console.
- Simplify Image Management: Streamline image management, patching, updates, and auto-scaling for hybrid resources, ensuring your on-premises environments are as agile as your cloud resources.
- Real-Time Insights: Nerdio Manager extends the native reporting and analytics of Azure Virtual Desktop to include a wide variety of virtual desktop insights including real-time usage and performance metrics across users, applications, sessions, and hosts.
By centralizing the management workflows, Nerdio Manager will allow IT teams to simplify the migration from legacy VDI solutions to AVD as well as streamline the on-going management tasks.
>Get updates on Nerdio Manager for Enterprise enhancements for Azure Virtual Desktop hybrid capabilities.
>Learn more at about Microsoft’s new hybrid deployment options for Azure Virtual Desktop on this announcement page and on Microsoft Learn.
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