Leveraging the power of Microsoft's cloud services, Azure Virtual Desktop as a Service is an instanced virtual machine hosting a desktop and app virtualization service running on the cloud. Azure Virtual Desktop delivers a virtual desktop experience and remote apps to any device. Depending on how it is configured, the platform can bring together Microsoft 365 and Azure to provide users with a multi-session Windows 10 experience, which includes scaling and reduced IT costs. Azure Virtual Desktop can be configured to run Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 7 Enterprise, or Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016, 2019. Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 are not supported.

The following Remote Desktop clients support Azure Virtual Desktop:

Virtual Windows PC Cloud
Web
macOS
iOS
Android
Microsoft Store Client

What are the benefits of Azure Virtual Desktop? Whether by choice or by happenstance, if your employees are working remotely, sensitive company data will likely be transferred and stored locally at some point, even if only briefly. Even with best-practice security precautions, this transfer of sensitive data is risky. Add the variabilities of employees using their own personal devices and networks for work activity and you have a recipe for disaster.

Azure Virtual Desktop allows employers to deploy virtual machines, configured exactly how they need them to be, that is securely instanced in the Azure cloud. In essence, sensitive company data is never transferred out of the company's control structure because any data transfers are merely between Azure cloud instances. Within the Microsoft Azure cloud, data is protected by all manner of built-in security protocols, including Azure Firewall, Azure Security Center, Azure Sentinel, and Microsoft Defender ATP. Under Azure Virtual Desktop, access to desktop instances is controlled by conditional access protocols, including multi-factor authentication. Azure infrastructure can be deployed to enable role-based access control (RBAC) and detect threats using Azure Security Center. Azure Virtual Desktop is certified compliant with ISO 27001, 27018, and 27701, PCI, and FedRAMP High for Commercial and HIPPA.

If your enterprise already subscribes to Microsoft 365 or an enterprise version of Windows, it can establish a desktop instance for each user for free with Azure Virtual Desktop. Therefore, at no extra charge, your remote users can access a ready-made virtual machine running Windows from anywhere, at any time, from any device. Because Azure Virtual Desktop is managed through the Microsoft Azure Portal, your enterprise can scale desktop instances to meet business needs on the fly. Admins can increase virtual CPUs, add virtual RAM, allocate more virtual hard disk storage, etc., with a few mouse clicks and an admin login account.

Learn more about Windows 10 Cloud PC such as Apps4Rent.