Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) has recently become a popular choice for many organizations looking to migrate their IT infrastructure to the cloud. There are several reasons why people are migrating to Microsoft AVD, including its scalability, flexibility, security, and cost-effectiveness. With AVD, organizations can quickly provision virtual desktops and applications in the cloud, which can be accessed by employees from anywhere, at any time, using any device. Additionally, AVD provides enhanced security features such as multi-factor authentication, role-based access control, and encryption, ensuring that sensitive data remains protected.

To dig into AVD a bit more and find out how to make a migration successful, VMblog reached out to industry expert, Brian Martynowicz, Senior Director of Customer Engineering at Login VSI.

VMblog:  Why are so many organizations moving to AVD?

Brian Martynowicz:  Enterprises have become accustomed to the benefits associated with virtualized desktops and published applications. It's always been about building a wall around your data. Microsoft recognized this trend and adjusted its business model towards a consumption-based model.

Thus, Office 365 became accessible through a subscription, and the desktop was a natural evolution.

VMblog:  What are some top things to think about when considering an AVD migration?

Martynowicz:  I recommend focusing specifically on Opex; the cloud represents a shift from Capex to Opex, and keeping Opex predictable should be the number one concern, hands down.

A great mentor of mine taught me that in business, many things are out of your control, but one thing you can directly control is your spending.

Traditionally, the problem has been a need for more data. Suppose you follow instructions provided by your vendor, from hardware to software. You listen to marketing materials and base your assessment on data created by real user on-prem utilization ratios. You take the plunge hoping your end-user experience doesn't blow up, and you spend only some of your money in the first couple of months. Then, you adjust the plane as you fly.

IT teams do this every day; while it works in some cases, it's not optimal and runs a lot of risk with this scenario. I'm here to tell you there is a better way, and that way starts having empirical and repeatable data to make your decisions. Otherwise, you are building on shifting sands.

VMblog:  How does the Login Enterprise platform enhance Azure and AVD?

Martynowicz:  By leveraging the virtual user technology embedded into Login Enterprise, you can create workflows that mirror the behaviors of your real users.

The big difference is that we've removed subjectivity and created a 100% repeatable model. You can run this against your current on-prem deployment and understand by testing what that will look like in an Azure or AVD environment and, ultimately, how that impacts your cost.

By focusing on the activities that drive your business revenue, like call centers, clinicians, traders, developers, etc., you can understand what's required to deliver a good user experience and reduce excess spending. This applies to AVD and Azure, more generally speaking. 

You can also continue to execute this workflow in your production environment. This way, whenever a new configuration, technology, instance, etc. comes along, you can quickly evaluate and ensure you deliver the same experience while managing and controlling the cost.

VMblog:  One of the biggest reasons IT teams are looking to tools like Login Enterprise is to pinpoint the root cause of EUC issues. So, what makes Login Enterprise different from other market solutions regarding performance monitoring?

Martynowicz:  Login Enterprise leverages the concept of a virtual user, whereas traditional monitoring solutions have leveraged real users to reproduce issues. The problem with this is that you are too late. Once a real user is impacted, you are dealing with an outage or slowed-down production to some degree.

Login Enterprise is inherently proactive. The virtual user is driving the business behaviors constantly and at scale. By doing so, you can introduce the reproduction scenario to catch an issue before users are impacted.

Many organizations will utilize a subsection of their users in a user acceptance testing environment before promoting it to production. While this scenario is better, you are diverting employees' precious time, which should go toward their daily job functions, to experiment. The other aspect is that human guinea pigs will never be able to do the amount of work a virtual user could do.

The virtual user can operate 24/7 in your AVD deployment, and any effort invested in building workflows is returned to you every time you execute this workflow. Lastly, the virtual user can drive interactions into any application your real users consume, an advantage that other legacy monitoring solutions do not have.

VMblog:  Cost is a big concern for organizations right now. So how can IT teams considering AVD migration stay within budget parameters?

Martynowicz:  You cannot track what you cannot measure and, consequently, its cost. Login Enterprise empowers IT teams to replicate actual revenue-generating activities or any actions, for that matter, to find the balance between cost and optimal user experience.

You can summon as many virtual users as required to find the most optimal configuration and look at the comparison to see how it intersects with the associated cost.

Constantly evaluating the best configuration cost-wise is critical for cloud deployments like AVD as technology continually changes and configuration possibilities that support it are unlimited.

VMblog:  Okay, say a company would like to use Login Enterprise to safeguard and enhance its AVD environment. Is the process to get started straightforward?

Martynowicz:  Login Enterprise is a highly secure and portable deployment. First, you import into the environment of your choice, which typically takes 10-20 minutes. Once that's done, you have a standard network configuration, and you are up and running in about an hour, getting baseline information about your environment.

VMblog:  What makes you most excited about where Login Enterprise is today?

Martynowicz:  We've been told that one of the missing components for success in large virtualized desktop and application deployments is the direct link between the cost of running it. Soon we will unveil a way to visualize this cost data in a way that is customized to your environment. We are excited to deliver something completely groundbreaking and plan to change how people look at where they are running their workloads.

With our upcoming announcement, organizations can seamlessly transition from on-prem to in the cloud or vice versa, depending upon the results from the virtual user. 

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