Azure Desktop – Your Key to Continue Business Operations During Uncertain Times

I understand that every Australian business had a continuity plan but a pandemic and immediate shift to remote-first culture was never on the charts. With some amazing innovations in the field of medicine, the pandemic of this scale and impact was never anticipated. This change certainly called for building a secure remote work environment. An effective and safeguarded remote culture requires investment in DaaS (Desktop as a Service) solutions. According to a study by Gartner, DaaS users will increase by 150% between 2020 and 2023. The tremendous adoption is not just the result of the pandemic, it also reflects the changing demands and the nature of the workforce. Corporates are adopting gig economies and not shying away from recruiting resources from any corner of the world if they possess the right skillsets. In such a scenario, where organisations are shifting from on-premises to work from home scenarios, it becomes mandatory to choose the right technology.

As a technology enabler for well-known Australian businesses, I want to recommend Microsoft Azure Desktop. The solution is also known as Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and was formerly called Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD). The solution combines the functionalities of desktop and app virtualisation and allows your users to access the required corporate resources from their devices. An active stable internet connection and an eligible device are all needed for your employee to start working from anywhere. Azure Desktop, the name suggests that it is based in Azure cloud, therefore, the robust security capabilities of Azure Active Directory, Azure Sentinel, Azure Security Center and Azure Firewall, come along.

After getting a brief overview of what Azure Virtual Desktop is, let’s see the business scenarios it can be deployed in. The virtual desktops can be deployed for small businesses that don’t have an in-house IT team or who lack resources to support and maintain the internal IT infrastructure. The AVD implementation saves small businesses the effort of installing computer machines, helping the employees with the issues, managing infrastructure and scanning applications regularly to look for updates and patches.

The Azure Desktop serves as a fine option when you have partners and vendors associated with your brand and they need to access the centralised resources on an occasional or frequent basis. Instead of giving them access over VPN, it is ideal to use the virtual desktop infrastructure as the solution is designed to streamline the management and reduce the cost as well. Also, the organisations that have employees operating from different locations and accessing Microsoft’s productivity applications such as Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Office 365 suite are the ideal users of this DaaS product.

Several Ways in which Azure Desktop Supports Your Remote Working Environment

•  Built-in Robust Security Controls

Cybersecurity has always been the concern of businesses irrespective of their size and industry vertical. The increased use of personal devices during the pandemic has made confidential data more vulnerable. Azure Desktop is an ideal solution for the situation. With the virtual desktop setting, you host the data in the cloud and not on any person’s device and hence improve the security of the information. The data is hosted in Microsoft’s products so you can benefit from the tech giant’s investments in security initiatives. Also, an added advantage is Microsoft’s team of experts. They have cybersecurity specialists who function round the clock to protect your data from bad actors.

• Reduced Workload of the IT Department

Azure Desktop certainly eliminates the need for installing physical computers. And as a result, your IT team just needs log into a virtual machine if they want to troubleshoot an issue. Also, the employees can log into a different machine till the time their system is being repaired to ensure business continuity. The IT team is enabled to push rule-based applications to all the linked machines by following a few steps and streamline the management of infrastructure.

• Recruit Resources with the Right Talent

There have been many instances where people have had to let go of abled resources as they were not working from the same location. Microsoft Azure Desktop solves this problem. Now, geography has no limit. You can recruit the right people from any location and equip them with the required applications and information with Microsoft’s virtual desktop solutions. You can increase the satisfaction level of your current employees by allowing them to work on their devices at their preferred time.

• Lower IT Maintenance Costs

The DaaS solutions make physical equipment like servers, switches and other hardware obsolete, allowing you to remove them from your infrastructure and save the related costs. You also save on licensing costs, hardware maintenance costs and much more.

Explore Azure Desktop Solutions with a Microsoft Solutions Partner

After seeing the trends and having conversations with CTOs and CEOs of different businesses, I feel that remote work is not going anywhere even after the pandemic has subsided. The employees by choice or necessity will be working from their homes.

Azure Desktop enables organisations to build a virtual desktop environment that equips their employees with the required resources. So, are you ready to create an amicable work from home experience for your employees? If yes, then let’s talk.

We are a Microsoft Solutions and Top Gun partner, who house a team of cloud specialists. Our consultants are trained to study your business requirements and then suggest the appropriate Azure Virtual Desktop solution for you. Reach out at 1300 EXIGOTECH (394 468) or to understand the steps into the future of work.