Microsoft has released its Windows Virtual Desktop for sale, and the public cloud-based system likely will become an important addition to the enterprise desktop-as-a-service market.
The tools, which were announced a year ago and opened for public preview in March, allow businesses to hook employees up to virtualized desktopsOpens a new window and applications through its Azure cloud computing service.
The system includes multisession Windows 10 capability and simplified management, as well as improved video conferencing facilities in its Microsoft Teams workplace communications platform.
“Windows Virtual Desktop is the only service that delivers simplified management, a multi-session Windows 10 experience, optimizations for Office 365 ProPlus, and support for Windows Server Remote Desktop Services desktops and apps,†Microsoft vice presidents Brad Anderson and Takeshi Numoto wrote in a blog postOpens a new window . “With Windows Virtual Desktop, you can deploy and scale your Windows desktops and apps on Azure in minutes.â€
Legacy operating system support
While the company’s main boasts for the service are its provisions for accessing Office 365 and Windows 10 remotely, IT administrators running Windows 7, which Microsoft will stop supporting next January, might be more interested to hear about the three-year security extensions offered through Windows Virtual Desktop if they choose to migrate to the newer version of the operating system.
Microsoft said 10,000 organizations had signed up for the preview and thousands of customers had taken the new system for a test drive.
The virtual desktop system was built with the help of FSLogix, an app provisioning start-up that Microsoft bought last November. As well as providing faster load times for remote users, FSLogix has a couple of products that have streamlined the remote desktops.
They include FSLogix Apps, which helps virtual desktop administrators manage user profiles by showing them just the apps, add-ins, fonts, printers and folders they need. Its FSLogix Profile Container and Office 365 Container store profile data locally, reducing load on the network and servers.
The result is a desktop pick-and-mix in the cloud, as opposed to a traditional, all-inclusive, on-premises desktop software package. Businesses can access Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 7 Enterprise at no additional cost if they have an eligible license for the software, with additional payment only required for the Azure services used.
Cost-saving and speed benefits
The new service, like other virtual desktop offerings, is likely to appeal to businesses that need flexibilityOpens a new window as they’re setting up desktops for temporary employees when they’re working on specialist or short-term projects and when security is important.
Other benefits to a business adopting desktop-as-a-serviceOpens a new window solutions includeOpens a new window :
- Simplifying the process of updating and patching software;
- Faster migration;
Quicker new user provisioning; - Improved disaster planning and recovery;
- Better app and data security.
In addition, an accounting benefit is that the cost of deploying and maintaining the hardware for each virtual desktop becomes an operational expense, thus reducing capital expenditures.
Vadim Vladimirskiy, the chief executive of Nerdio, which provides an Azure automation platform for managed service providers, emphasized in an interviewOpens a new window the significance of the new service. “You can now have a virtual machine running Windows 10, with multisession enabled, and have multiple people getting a virtual desktop on that one virtual machine – making the cost per user much lower,†Vladimirskiy said.
Vladimirskiy added that the virtual desktop could have mass market appeal to companies that had not previously considered virtualization due to concerns over licensing complexities, cost, user profile limitations, user experience and performance.
Competitors and partners
While Microsoft’s new virtual desktop will compete with products from rivals Citrix and VMware, the companies also are Microsoft’s partners.
Citrix’s Virtual Apps and Desktop service can be hosted on Windows Virtual Desktop and VMware, which sells the Horizon Cloud virtualization product, also pledges to support Windows Virtual Desktop by the end of 2019. Both companies have partnered with Microsoft to extend the functionality of virtual desktop, building it with their own specific tools.
Microsoft is one of the players in the desktop-as-a-service market, along with Amazon Web Services, VMware and Citrix. Citrix made its newest virtualization service, Managed Desktops, generally available in August this year. AWS, meanwhile, offers Linux or Windows virtual desktops on its WorkSpaces service.
While moving infrastructureOpens a new window to the cloud is already popular, corporations are increasingly seeking a similar service for the desktop.
A Gartner report finds that while the biggest companies appear slow to adopt, the market is picking up momentum. By the end of this year, it predicted, 50% of new virtual desktop infrastructure users will be deployed on data-as-a-service platforms.