Microsoft has released new details about its nascent and evolving Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) offering.
WVD is a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that enables businesses to more easily deliver virtual Windows 7 or 10 environments to employees. Clients can choose the operating system and apps needed, plus the configuration of the virtual machines to be made available, all of which is hosted on Microsoft data servers and delivered to users as a complete, virtual remote desktop environment.
The updates were revealed in an interview with WVD program manager Kam VedBrat at the company's Microsoft Ignite event. VedBrat highlighted the move away from a command-line interface to a new graphical user interface provided by the Azure Portal. An additional WVD QuickStart tool is intended to further simplify and automate the deployment process, providing a template for users to create a WVD platform “in the click of a button.”
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Windows Virtual Desktop
When asked about the differences between WVD and the more traditional Windows Remote Desktop Service (RDS), VedBrat explained how WVD eases deployment by reducing the number of moving parts businesses have to manage.
Dedicated RDS servers, RDP gateways, connection brokers, and other components can all now be handled by the WVD platform. With improved usability, says VedBrat, the service has been seeing greater and greater interest.
To keep up with demand, Microsoft has been investing in infrastructure and now has a number of “WVD optimized” regions, which should see faster connection speeds and greater reliability overall.
Other technical improvements will have a similar effect. Moving Microsoft Teams video encoding onto endpoints, for example, rather than the VM’s they’re accessing, improved CPU usage by 80%.
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Via RedmondMag (opens in new tab)
