With much of the workforce now working from home, many companies have seen a spike in the use of technologies such as virtual private networks (VPN) and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) over the past few months. VDI allows users to connect remotely to a desktop on a virtual machine (VM), which runs on a server, either on premises or in the cloud. But as more users are working remotely, that means more VMs have to be created, right?
Well no, not necessarily. While traditional virtual desktop infrastructure allocates one virtual machine per user, Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) allows five users to share the same VM via Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session on Microsoft Azure. This solution helps reduce cloud usage by allowing you to allocate VM resources more efficiently.
What is Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session?
According to Microsoft, Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session is a Remote Desktop Session Host that allows multiple concurrent interactive sessions. This gives users a familiar Windows 10 experience, while IT can benefit from the cost advantages of multi-session and existing per-user Windows licensing. It’s worth noting that this service cannot be run on-premises – it is optimized for the Windows Virtual Desktop service on Microsoft Azure.
At CDW, we’re here to help you simplify complex solutions, such as effectively allocating resources in the cloud. That’s why we’ve introduced a new pilot program allowing our customers to easily and securely test the Windows Virtual Desktop from anywhere. Our Windows Virtual Desktop pilot program can configure up to 10 users, while easily migrating your existing Remote Desktop Solution (RDS) environments to WVD. Here’s how it works:
Phase 1: Reviewing your current environment
In this phase, our Cloud Services experts will review any existing VDI environments, gather prerequisites for your applications and image requirements and ensure that the WVD solution is ready to be deployed.
Phase 2: Configuring your Windows Virtual Desktop
At this stage, your team can focus on getting ready for testing while we get everything set up. CDW will configure all WVD components on Azure, which includes creating one host pool with up to 10 instances.
Phase 3: Setting you up for success
Once testing is completed, CDW will transfer knowledge to your team and provide a runbook to destroy the environment. You can then choose to keep the environment and transition to production.
Why choose CDW for your Windows Virtual Desktop deployment?
CDW’s cloud practice accelerates the development process, enables your team to manage infrastructure more autonomously and ultimately improves your experience. We are a Microsoft Partner with Gold Cloud Platform Competency practices, and have a bench of cloud-certified Azure professionals to support your cloud journey. Our cloud team uses automation tools to deploy your Azure landing zone, which reduces risk, time and costs.
To learn more about CDW’s expert cloud solutions and services, visit CDW.ca/cloud
