AVD is a desktop and application virtualization solution that runs in the cloud. Regardless of the device they're on, it allows users to use the remote desktop environment from anywhere. Their experience is exactly the same — the applications are live-streamed from the server with immediate effect and no installation is required!

SECURITY, SCALABILITY, SAVINGS

Judging by the growing interest of NATEK customers in these solutions, we can see that they, too, see the advantages of AVD. It’s safe — users only have access to resources that are made available to them by the administrator. It is secured by conditional access/MFA. Moreover, sensitive data is never sent out of the company’s control. AVD is also easily scalable with an Azure auto-scaling feature that automatically adds session hosts in heavy workloads or reduces the number of servers when not in use to save costs.

Earlier, Remote Desktop Services were complex and expensive to set up and manage, making them unavailable to most SMBs. With AVD, the entire backend and sessions hosts are provided by Microsoft. It makes it cost-effective, relatively easy to deploy, configure and scale.

ESTIMATE COSTS AND AVOID RISKS

The key to a successful implementation of AVD is planning. The organization needs to plan the environment, check what applications are used and what the minimum resources are on which these applications can function. Rash decisions can result in solution inefficiency, long application latency and the need to increase resources, leading to an increase in costs.

Azure provides a calculator that estimates the cost of implementing an AVD solution, which together with the specialist’s expertise is used to determine costs. When calculating the cost of moving the Virtual Desktop from Citrix to AVD for one of NATEK's customers, the producer of graphic and medical imaging solutions, we estimated the average cost for 1,000 users and 30 servers at medium/heavy workload to be in the range of approx. $15,000-20,000/month. In the case of this client, the entire AVD solution turned out to be comparable to the cost of Citrix licenses alone. In some cases, however, AVD may even turn out to be unprofitable, especially when high computing power is required for a large number of users. The quality of network connections is very important as well — with slow connectivity, the AVD solution will not work efficiently.

A SERVICE FOR EVERYONE?

AVD can be used by virtually any company — a corporation with extensive infrastructure or a small business wanting to use the service in the cloud model. But most of all, it’s perfect for companies with multiple locations and a need for secure remote work tools. With the growing trend to resign from renting office space and the increased interest in Bring Your Own Device, it can greatly minimize the costs.

With headquarters in Warsaw, Poland, NATEK is a fast-growing IT outsourcing company. Emil Jasiński, the cloud specialist at  NATEK, holds extensive knowledge of Azure technology.