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The Benefits of Azure Virtual Desktop for the Hybrid Workforce

Geraldine Strawbridge

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It’s no secret that the global events of the last few years have significantly transformed the business landscape. The traditional notion of employees being tied to their office desks no longer works. The hybrid workforce requires flexible and agile working solutions that enable them to carry out their operations seamlessly, regardless of their location.

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is a desktop and application virtualisation service that runs in the Azure Cloud, providing remote access to essential business resources. AVD is a valuable tool for the hybrid workforce, delivering a range of previously unachievable business benefits.

Top 5 Benefits of Azure Virtual Desktop

Azure Virtual Desktop offers a wide range of advanced functionalities, making it a highly capable solution with lots of benefits. However, for hybrid businesses, there are five key advantages that stand out.

Flexibility

Azure Virtual Desktop offers far greater flexibility for your workforce. Harnessing Windows Desktop to offer a user experience almost identical to office working, Azure Virtual Desktop is accessible on any compatible device, from anywhere with an internet connection. With Azure Virtual Desktop, work is more than just a place; your employees have the freedom to be productive wherever they go.

Azure Virtual Desktop integrates with the rest of your Microsoft ecosystem, including Microsoft 365 and Teams, to provide a seamless working experience. Plus, you don’t need to sacrifice cost efficiency for flexibility. You can utilise multi-session capabilities to stack multiple users on a single virtual desktop without their settings or usage conflicting.

Hybrid working AVD

Scalability

With Azure Virtual Desktop, you can efficiently scale your resources up or down depending on your specific usage requirements at that time. Azure Portal is a unified hub that allows you to manage your Cloud resources. Through the Azure Portal, you can manage AVD, configure network settings, deploy desktop applications, enable security features and add or remove users as needed.

Cost-efficiency

One of the greatest benefits of Azure Virtual Desktop is its cost efficiency. As AVD is virtual, it doesn’t require you to invest in costly on-premises infrastructure. Additionally, if you have an existing Microsoft 365 Business Premium subscription, you won’t face any extra licensing or management overhead costs. Azure Virtual Desktop has a pay-as-you-go, consumption-based pricing that helps to contain costs and ensures that you never pay for more than you’re using.

Backup

Azure Virtual Desktop is equipped with backup and recovery solutions that help your team protect against outages. Azure Site Recovery, a disaster recovery service native to the Azure Cloud, helps to keep your applications up and running and your business operational, even during outages. Azure Service Health will notify you about Azure service incidents and planned maintenance so that you can mitigate downtime ahead of time.

Management

One of the most significant benefits of Azure Virtual Desktop is the streamlined and simplified management. Microsoft are responsible for managing nearly the entire infrastructure of your AVD environment, including storage, networking, computing, diagnostics, load balancing and brokering. This means that you only need to manage your users, applications and virtual machines.

Transform Your Hybrid Workforce with AVD

At Ortus, we have the expertise and experience to optimise your AVD experience. To find out more about the benefits of Azure Virtual Desktop and how it compares to a legacy server, contact sales@ortus.ie or download our free Battlecard now.

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Geraldine Strawbridge

This is Geraldine, our adventure-loving storyteller! When she's not weaving tales about Ortus, you’ll find her exploring the beaches and hills of Donegal. She loves a good old share, like or retweet.