Over the last two years, there has been a significant increase in market demand for end user computing (EUC) technologies. As enterprises face new challenges implementing initiatives related to remote or hybrid work, hardware refreshes, decreasing their global carbon footprint, and strengthening cybersecurity and ensuring cyber resilience — many have turned to cloud client computing and desktop virtualization to meet their organization’s EUC needs.
When it comes to selecting the right solutions to ensure the efficacy of your EUC strategy and the cloud infrastructure needed to support it, most customers turn to Microsoft. A well-known, popular tech giant in the industry, Microsoft has long been the standard when it comes to end user computing. And they have preserved their standing with two relatively new Azure services – Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD).
Learn more below about the specific benefits Azure Virtual Desktop provides organizations across four common enterprise use cases.
1. Supporting Remote and Hybrid Work at Scale
As workers continue to prefer work-from-home (WFH) and work-from-anywhere (WFA) environments, enterprises need to be able to quickly deploy new users on the fly with the desktops and resources they need. Organizations, especially large global ones, have a diverse set of workers. In addition to catering to the needs of different departments and full-time roles, many employ remote and contract workers who do not have the need to access all company data, apps and programs.
AVD can accommodate any EUC need while ensuring proper access controls are in place. Host pools, user groups and automation help IT admins on the backend manage end users, and the right permissions associated, at scale with ease. Additionally, through the Azure Marketplace customers can trial and leverage AVD and Azure cloud resources quickly to meet their business needs. Procurement is fast and activating licenses takes mere minutes for many cloud-native solutions like Nerdio Manager.
2. Refreshing Outdated Hardware
As enterprises today face aging hardware against chip shortages and supply chain constraints, many are looking to migrate their EUC needs to a more operational expense (OPEX) model. In other words, they don’t want to buy thousands of new devices in 2022 only to have to do the same thing in 2026. By leveraging virtual desktops in Azure, customers can shift their computing model to the cloud and open up more cost-effective strategies for edge computing. AVD allows enterprises the ability to leverage tablets, iPads, or similar devices. Even outdated devices with aged hardware can be reborn as cloud devices. All the aforementioned AVD benefits allow enterprises to lay a secure, scalable foundation for their BYOD and WFA policies and practices.
3. Decreasing Global Carbon Footprint
As the world looks to decrease its carbon footprint and strive for a greener society, studies show that cloud computing in Azure can be up to 93 percent more energy-efficient compared to an on-premises environment. Additionally, using Microsoft Azure is up to 98 percent more carbon efficient than using a traditional enterprise datacenter. Being more sustainable and reducing waste is also another very important benefit related to conducting fewer hardware refreshes. Not only are you saving money by enabling more cloud compatible devices and extending the life of your hardware investments – but fewer devices will need to be recycled overall.
4. Strengthening Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience
Security is arguably the largest concern given today’s threat landscape and high-profile breaches. With constant threats seeking to expose data, and the need to continue business operations even if you’ve been breached or a data center outage occurs, the move to cloud makes even more sense. Organizations can optimize their AVD deployments to be more resilient by taking actions like ensuring an active/active disaster recovery configuration. And in working with Microsoft, organizations benefit from over 3,500 global cybersecurity experts working tirelessly to defend against every threat and protect their data and assets in Azure.
Be sure to schedule a demo with us to see how AVD can benefit your organization.
