Azure Virtual Desktop for business: when it makes sense
Azure Virtual Desktop promises a full corporate PC available anywhere. For some businesses it's ideal, for others needlessly expensive. Here's a sober look at when it's the right choice.
What Azure Virtual Desktop is
AVD is a virtual desktop running in Microsoft's cloud. Via a client or browser, the user connects to a Windows session that physically runs in Azure. The result is a corporate PC with all its apps, available from a laptop, tablet or home computer — while the data never leaves the data centre.
When it makes sense
AVD isn't for everyone. It pays off most in these situations:
- Remote or hybrid work needing secure access to corporate apps.
- Contractors or temps you don't want to hand company hardware to.
- Apps that need to run close to data in the cloud.
- Firms with strict requirements that data stay within a protected environment.
If everyone has a company laptop and works from the office, AVD will likely add cost without a matching benefit.
Licensing and cost
AVD cost has two components to keep separate:
- Licensing — with a suitable Microsoft 365 or Windows licence, the right to use AVD is often already included.
- Azure consumption — you pay for compute, storage and network. This is the main, variable component.
Cost can be optimised significantly — for example by sharing one host among several users and auto-shutting down outside working hours. This is where AVD becomes either economical or expensive.
The key to sensible cost is sizing hosts correctly and setting up autoscaling. An over-provisioned environment runs up bills even at night when nobody works.
What to watch out for
- Handle user profiles with FSLogix — without it, sessions are slow and unpleasant.
- Test key applications in the session environment before rolling out company-wide.
- Plan the network connection to Azure — latency decides how comfortable it feels.
- Set up autoscaling and cost monitoring from day one.
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