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Microsoft

Azure Virtual Desktop

Microsoft's cloud desktop service — Windows 11 multi-session pools with FSLogix profile management, FSL roaming and native Microsoft 365 integration.

Overview

Azure Virtual Desktop in practice

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) delivers Windows desktops and individual applications from Azure and, for many organisations, succeeds classic Citrix or VMware Horizon farms. The technical core is Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session: several users share one virtual machine, which cuts compute cost sharply compared with one VM per person. Under the licensing terms, however, this edition may only run in production inside the Azure Virtual Desktop service, and it will not activate against an on-premises KMS server.

The access rights are already included in Microsoft 365 E3, E5, F3 and Business Premium; a separate RDS CAL is only due for Windows Server session hosts. The most common pitfall is user profiles: FSLogix profile containers on Azure Files need enough IOPS, otherwise the morning sign-in takes minutes. Alendris replaced Citrix with AVD for 8,000 employees at an energy utility — without downtime and with roughly 35 percent lower total cost.

References

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