With more Boston businesses embracing remote work models, finding secure, flexible, and cost-effective desktop solutions has become a top priority. Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) are two leading options, each offering unique advantages – but which is right for your business? Let’s break down the key differences between VDI and AVD before exploring the business solutions they offer.
VDI and AVD: What’s the Difference?
As virtual desktop solutions become more popular, it’s important to understand how VDI and AVD differ to choose the right option for your business. Just as this article reveals, the Desktop as a Service (DaaS) market is predicted to reach $2.46 billion this year, highlighting its continued growth in popularity among businesses.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a traditional solution where desktops are hosted on physical servers. This setup gives businesses full control over their environment but can initially be quite costly. Managing VDI typically requires a dedicated IT team to handle infrastructure updates, security, and support.
However, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is Microsoft’s cloud-based virtual desktop, eliminating the need for physical infrastructure by hosting everything in the cloud. AVD is designed to be flexible and scalable, allowing businesses to adjust resources as they need.
VDI vs. AVD: Key Benefits Breakdown
So, how do VDI and AVD business solutions differ?
- Cost Efficiency: VDI requires a large upfront investment in hardware, licensing, and IT resources to maintain the system over time. Alternatively, AVD offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model that reduces capital expenses and lowers ongoing operational costs, offering a more cost-effective option for businesses.
- Scalability: With VDI, scaling often means configuring new servers, which can be time-consuming and expensive. Contrastingly, AVD makes scaling simple – resources can be added or removed on demand without the need for physical hardware, allowing your environment to grow with your business.
- Performance: VDI’s performance depends heavily on the strength and maintenance of your internal infrastructure. Meanwhile, AVD delivers reliable and high-performance virtual desktops by leveraging Microsoft’s global Azure cloud, ensuring consistent user experiences regardless of location.
- Security: VDI environments are managed in-house, giving you direct control over security protocols but also placing full responsibility on your IT team. However, AVD offers enterprise-grade security features built into the Azure platform, including multi-factor authentication, data encryption, and continuous threat detection.
- Remote Work Readiness: Supporting remote access with VDI involves configuring VPNs and dealing with connectivity challenges. Opposingly, AVD is built with remote work in mind, allowing users to securely access their desktops from anywhere with just an internet connection, no additional setup required.
Choosing the Right Solution for Your Business
Deciding between VDI and AVD can be challenging. Let’s look at how each aligns with specific business needs:
- Business Size: While VDI is often better suited for large enterprises with complex IT environments and more resources to manage on-premises infrastructure, AVD is ideal for SMBs (small and midsized businesses) looking for cost-effective scalability.
- Workforce Location: Typically requires additional configuration, like VPNs, to support remote access; VDI can become compliant to set up for distributed teams. AVD is better suited for remote workers, ensuring secure, seamless access to virtual desktops from anywhere.
- IT Management Resources: VDI gives businesses full control over their desktop infrastructure but demands a skilled in-house IT team to manage updates, security, and performance. For those looking to reduce that burden, AVD shifts most of the management to Microsoft’s cloud platform, so IT teams can focus on strategic initiatives.
- Security Approach: VDI allows for in-house control over security configurations, which can be beneficial for industries with strict compliance needs. However, AVD comes with built-in Azure security features like multi-factor authentication and advanced threat protection, offering strong security without heavy lifting.
Future-Proof Your IT with Azure Virtual Desktop
Azure Virtual Desktop sets your business up for long-term success. With its cloud-first design, AVD eliminates the need for costly hardware upgrades, supports seamless scalability as your team grows, and provides built-in security features to protect your data. By adopting AVD, your business gains the flexibility to adapt quickly, reduces IT overhead, and stays ahead of challenges.
How SecureWon Helps with AVD Migration
At SecureWon, our IT support helps Boston businesses seamlessly make the switch from VDI to AVD – or adopt a virtual desktop solution for the first time. We step in to:
- Assessing Your Current Setup: We start with a comprehensive evaluation of your existing IT infrastructure, software, and user needs to determine if AVD is the right fit.
- Planning the Transition: Our team builds a custom migration roadmap that outlines timelines, required tools, and any changes to workflows or application setups.
- Seamless Migration: We manage the technical side of the migration to AVD, ensuring minimal downtime and disruption to your team.
- Ongoing Post-Migration Support: From fine-tuning performance to monitoring security, we offer continued support to keep your AVD environment optimized and secure.
Book a Free Call Today
Whether you’re considering a move from VDI or adopting virtual desktops for the first time, we’re here to guide you every step of the way. Let us help you harness the benefits of cloud migration – book a free call with us
