Thinking of Moving to Azure and Azure Virtual Desktop? 5 Actions for Success

Microsoft Azure continues to be a forerunner for public cloud dominance. A 2022 cloud usage survey by Flexera estimates 80% enterprise usage of Azure versus 77% for AWS. In regards to virtual machines (VMs) Azure also comes out ahead, with 71% of enterprises running more than 51 VMs on Azure compared to 69% for AWS, according to the survey.

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) gives enterprises a virtual general store of applications and or desktops, whether running multi-session Windows 11, Windows 10 or Windows Server. It enables Microsoft 365 applications for multi-user virtual scenarios, though, single-user scenarios are also supported. By virtualizing both desktops and applications, AVD enables IT to unify the management of desktops and apps from different Windows and Windows servers.

The end-to-end virtualization approach in Azure offers benefits in efficiency and integration. However, before an enterprise decides to use AVD it is important to carefully consider the business strategy behind adoption, as well as the architectural context, and what needs to be thought through before implementation and deployment.

Some of these considerations include aligning on responsibilities, understanding how applications and data will be handled in the new environment, and determining which outcomes you want to see from your move to AVD. Here are five key areas to consider for a successful AVD rollout:

Determine Responsibilities and Resource Availability. Putting together an AVD team, clearly delineating responsibilities and making sure adequate resources are in place, are the basic building blocks for AVD deployment and company onboarding. These are questions to ask:

Who is in charge of building the new environment and/or writing proper documentation, technically and functionally?
Who is responsible for creating the overall deployment plan, setting timelines. milestones, and deliverables?
Who is responsible for testing and is there a plan is place? Are there any success criteria that need to be considered?
Who will be educating, onboarding, and supporting users when their new workspace is ready for production? What does the process look like?
Is there sufficient staff already on board to execute or does IT see this pushing other initiatives to the side?
These processes can be time consuming. How will communication take place throughout the project?

By making sure people have time allocated to the actions they will be expected to incorporate into their role, it takes a lot of uncertainty away and will greatly enhance your chances of completing your AVD integration on time.

Set Goals and Success Criteria. Once the team is in place it’s time to identify desired outcomes from using AVD and set timelines and milestones to work towards. Usually this starts with a proof of concept (PoC). In other words, when are we successful? AVD is the virtual engine that supports all types of applications, including legacy, cloud-native, web-based, and more, delivering them directly to your endpoint of choice. Bringing in AVD to your enterprise should be aligned with business strategy, i.e., plans for additional cloud storage, expectations of remote worker needs, whether you plan to move to Windows 365, your plans for scaling up or down, and when. Looking at deployment from a 360-degree perspective will help create a critical priorities list to map to when AVD is up and running.
Determine Application Integration and Access. AVD’s core value centers on virtualizing desktops and applications to help your hybrid/remote workforce have the most productive workday. A common sticking point here is application compatibility. Switching platforms often means a change of the underlying operating system. While moving from Windows 10 to Windows 11 (Multi-Session), for example, shouldn’t create any major issues, you still want to make sure you do not run into any surprises once users go live. Certain applications can also behave differently when they are run on a cloud-based VM. Planning for adequate compute resources needs to be on your list. All this would be part of your test plan as well.

Other factors to consider are:

The number and types of applications that will be delivered by AVD. Some applications can be retired or replaced by a more modern cloud/web based alternative. Make sure to inventory with care and consider the 6 R’s: Rehost, Refactor, Revise, Rebuild, and Replace.
Allowing adequate time to test the applications. Consider tools like Rimo3 that utilize intelligent automation to streamline and expedite the testing process.
Controlling application access by using tools like FSLogix App Masking which enables IT to ‘mask’ applications from a user when apps are on a host pool (image).
Simplifying the application update process by using solutions like FlexApp One from Liquidware or MSIX AppAttach offered by Microsoft. These solutions can separate applications from the underlying operating system, making updates faster and more efficient.

Finally, you need to develop a strategy for ongoing application and patch lifecycle management. Your base images will need to be updated from time to time; application and security updates will be factors; new applications may be added, and security may need to be enhanced. And since the cloud is not free, dynamically scaling your session host VMs up or down according to usage (this applies to storage as well) will help keep your budget in check.

Critically Examine Data Considerations. Take a critical look at your data use and decide early on how much you will move to Azure. Cloud storage is often a budget issue so determine which data really needs to be housed in Azure and is tied to workforce productivity. This might also be a good time to archive certain data and clean things up a bit. Azure also offers various archiving data options, for example, which are cheaper than traditional storage. Also decide if you will be using traditional file servers or a more flexible and scalable approach like Azure Files.

As with applications, you want to make sure that the data used is as close to your hosts (where the actual work is done) and users as possible. This helps to eliminate latency issues and ensure users will have quick access to files and folders.

Educate and Involve Your Users. Moving to Azure and AVD can set your company on the right path for the future and do a better job of supporting your remote workforce while upgrading from legacy technology, but it has to come with buy-in from the hundreds or thousands of people who will use the services every day. Working across the company, with managers, HR and IT, devise a strategy for communicating this change and for continual training and engagement with your workforce.

Getting your users involved early and hearing their concerns or suggestions will help smooth the transition to AVD.

Preparation Counts

Azure Virtual Desktop is a powerful tool and can help you move your business to the next level of virtualization. However, making the switch to it can be complicated without the right advance preparation. Take time to plan and define scope of deployment, responsibility, level of data migration and application compatibility, early on, to promote a successful AVD move.