The technology sector climate has majorly shifted over the last few years to accommodate working remotely. With that comes the issue of moving work devices to employees’ homes, and setting them up, which can be time consuming. It also becomes a lot more difficult if a company has its own security and network policies, and the like.
One of the solutions to this issue is virtual desktops.
What is a virtual desktop?
A virtual desktop, as the name suggests, is a desktop that doesn’t run on a user’s hardware. It’s hosted on a remote server and is accessible from multiple devices. Therefore, it’s not limited to one office.
Azure Virtual Desktop runs on the cloud, and you can save costs by leveraging your existing Windows licenses for secure remote work.
Why should you need a virtual desktop?
In some cases, if you have managed to set up your staff from working remotely, you likely don’t need to use a virtual desktop. This all depends on the policies in place however, so sometimes even that might present a problem – like an employee travelling and having to work from abroad, but doesn’t have secure access.
For a global company, it may be an issue of having everything centralized but the environment being unstable and not maintained well enough, or simply old enough to be not sustainable and completely secure anymore.
Or maybe you need to spend tons of money on new physical equipment.
All of this can get very expensive if not considered in time.
Why choose Azure Virtual Desktop?
Cost effective. The cost is only £5 per user, which is pretty negligible if otherwise you would need to buy hardware with specific license requirements. You would also save time with any software updates, as they wouldn’t have to be done individually across devices, but only once on the one virtual desktop.
Security. Much like any data you’re storing on the cloud (perhaps on SharePoint if you’re already a Microsoft user?), adding company data to Azure Virtual Desktop removes the risk of loss if the hardware malfunctions or gets stolen. AVD gives you control for secure management and access of data and applications.
Flexible. AVD is very easy to deploy and set up, and you can choose between a full desktop or only select virtual apps. It also increases productivity because it allows your users to be more agile, and there’s minimal fuss around the transition since it seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft products, such as Microsoft 365 and Teams.
2) Name the Files
When you store the files you want to load, consider using a naming convention for them that clearly identifies the content of the file. In this way, you’ll then be able to slice or filter the data in PowerBI by the data files you have loaded. Once you’ve decided on the file names, update them and save them into the storage location you have decided upon.
Ultimately, it's up to you...
Azure Virtual Desktop can be for any business of any size, and setting it up depends entirely on individual requirements. Since virtual desktops are becoming more mainstream, they aren’t as expensive or complex as they used to be, so now might be a good time to (re)consider it. Get in touch with our Azure experts for more information about this excellent product.
Latest Stories
Here’s what we've been up to recently.
Why choose Azure for your business?
Microsoft Azure is a powerful cloud platform covering a multitude of services in and beyond traditional hosting services and virtual servers, all offered at a low total cost of ownership. Find out today why migrating to Azure may be one of the best things you can do for your business.
Joshua White
Liked the article? Leave us a comment!
Your email address will not be published.
