Christiaan Brinkhoff: Why I joined Nerdio

People often ask me why I decided to join Nerdio after spending many years at Microsoft, where I had the privilege of working from the very beginning on Windows 365, along with other end-user computing innovations across Windows, Intune, and Azure Virtual Desktop. Microsoft was—and still is—an incredible place to build technology at global scale. 

But my decision to join Nerdio didn’t happen overnight. I’ve been following Nerdio since its early days—well before COVID-19 reshaped our industry and before cloud-first end-user computing became the default conversation. Back then, Nerdio was already showing signs of being something special: deeply technical, unapologetically focused on real customer pain, and led by people who truly understood what IT professionals were struggling with every day. 

Watching Nerdio grow from those early days into a +$100+ million ARR, profitable business has been incredible. But what impressed me most wasn’t just the growth—it was how that growth happened. Nerdio stayed customer-obsessed, execution-focused, and engineering-driven, even as the scale increased dramatically. 

When Scott Manchester announced that I was joining Nerdio as Senior Director of Product Management on April Fools’ Day, more than a few people reached out to ask the obvious question: 

“Wait… is this real?” 

Yes—it absolutely is 😊 And while the timing was fun, the decision behind it was very serious. 

A story I’ll never forget 

One of my memories about Nerdio goes all the way back to Microsoft Inspire 2018. 

I still remember Vadim, CEO of Nerdio, coming up to me and asking a simple question: 

“What do you think we should build next in Nerdio Manager?” 

I remember my answer at the time was clear: image management. Anyone who was deploying WVD (as it was called back then) knew how painful image lifecycle management was—manual steps, fragile processes, and far too much risk. 

Fast forward to today, and when you look at where Nerdio Manager is now, it’s pretty amazing. That conversation in 2018 captures what I love about Nerdio: listening early, listening deeply, and then executing relentlessly. It illustrates the customer obsession of the team that I’ll carry forward!  

Unified management finally done right 

What truly excites me about Nerdio today is the unified management experience—not just from a tooling perspective, but from a people and skills perspective. 

One of the biggest challenges I’ve seen across the industry isn’t technology; it’s knowledge silos. Organizations often have separate teams (or specialists) for VDI, Intune, Azure Virtual Desktop, and now Windows 365. Each platform comes with its own learning curve, terminology, operational model, and risk profile. That complexity slows teams down and raises the barrier to innovation. 

By bringing Intune, Windows 365, and Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) together into a single pane of glass, Nerdio doesn’t just simplify management—it unifies knowledge across IT teams. It lowers the need for deep, platform-specific expertise and instead enables teams to operate consistently across environments. This dramatically reduces training overhead and helps organizations scale faster with the people they already have. 

And this becomes even more powerful when you look at real-world customer journeys. 

Many organizations today are not “all in” on a single platform—and that’s OK. You might be running Citrix or Omnissa today, experimenting with Azure Virtual Desktop, and evaluating Windows 365 for specific use cases. Traditionally, that would force early, high-risk decisions: Which platform do we bet on? Which skillset do we train? Which tool do we lock into? 

This is where Nerdio truly acts as the Switzerland of management solutions. 

Nerdio allows customers to: 

• Operate multiple platforms without fragmenting teams.
• Infuse AI in all management aspects via Nerdio Manager Copilot.
• Migrate at their own pace—without pressure. 
• Avoid upfront, irreversible decisions. 
• Manage today’s state and tomorrow’s transition with the same tool. 

Whether you decide to stay in a mixed model long term or eventually move fully from Citrix or Omnissa to Windows 365, Nerdio supports you during the journey—not just at the destination. It facilitates both coexistence and migration, removing the need to split tools, teams, or processes. 

What makes this especially compelling is that Nerdio simplifies complexity without abstracting away control. IT teams can move faster, reduce cost, and increase security—while still respecting how Microsoft platforms are designed to work under the hood. 

Why now feels like the perfect moment 

Joining Nerdio at this stage feels different—in the best possible way. 

The company has proven the model. The product has matured at scale. The community is strong, engaged, and opinionated (in a good way). 

And yet, it still feels like we’re just getting started. 

With AI and agents becoming more deeply infused into the product, we’re entering the next phase of innovation—where automation becomes intelligence, and management becomes proactive instead of reactive. I’m genuinely excited about how AI will enhance decision making, optimization, and day-to-day operations across Nerdio’s platform. 

Looking ahead  

I joined Nerdio because I believe in the mission, the people, and the product. I joined because I’ve seen this journey from the outside—and now I get to help shape what comes next from the inside. 

To the Nerdio community: I’m excited to build the future together. 

Join me at NerdioCon in May to learn more about the next chapter of Nerdio Manager.  

— Christiaan Brinkhoff