“Generally “ available? So does that mean it’s available sometimes, but not to everyone or not always?
"General" availability means available to the general public, basically. as opposed to beta/insiders etc.
Thanks, was wondering about that
Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
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Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#52I can see the security benefit of a virtualized desktop, and in some industries I understand that that's enough to justify this kind of solution.
Aside from that, I don't see so many benefits. The company still needs to provide to each employee a device, and training. I don't see many savings on this side. Companies going for cheap devices will still go for cheap devices, while those looking for higher end devices won't settle for cheap alternatives. Besides, SSD and CPU are now very cheap, so you can get very good configurations for cheap. On the other hand, batteries are still expensive, and virtualization might drain them more than using the local CPU depending on the use case.
If the added value is the easier configuration phase and maintenance for IT (software side, as devices still need maintenance), then ChromeOS seems like a much better approach. Instead of delegating to a third party the whole OS (virtualized), the customer only transfers the management of the services. And to be fair, if security here is the main concern, then ChromeOS seems still better positioned, both because data is on the cloud, and because of how the OS is "restricted".
At the end of the day, WVD seems like a way to sell (also) azure services on top of windows. So I wouldn't be surprised if companies evaluating this option will see an increment in costs.
At this point I wonder if it's really worth, especially considering that if for any reason the company cannot keep paying Microsoft for the service, or it's cut off from the service (e.g. non us company -> sanctions), basically the whole company is back to paper in a matter of minutes, while with non-virtualized solutions there's a much bigger safety net.
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#53I have a friend who works at a big Corporation (100k employees) where everyone has a thin dumb client and windows desktop running on a server. It works great, except video stutters if not small sized. Way of the future? Its an efficient way to pool resources, and prevents people physically stealing data.
Has problems when your staff spend a lot of time mobile though. Our staff have laptops and are quite often travelling on trains, aeroplanes, in offices and hotels where their guest WiFi is borked. While the laptops have a 4G chip, and connectivity is improving year by year, it is still not feasible to rely on remote desktop only for our use case. Local desktop and offline file sync is still the only way to go here.
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#54There's still large areas just 35 miles from DC that don't have high speed internet. The cloud is STILL just for people who never leave the range of high speed internet.
Shit, my company is in a 8 million+ people suburb and we pay $5k/month just for guaranteed 50 mbps internet. And we are saturating it too easily as is :/
A gigabit connection was quoted at ~ $80k/month. (The line is already fiber, it's literally just throttling). Which is insane considering that's 12 peoples salary in a year.
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
And, more to the point, some people not having public water and sewerage systems doesn't stop us selling toilets or taps.
Well that analogy doesn’t hold because you still use toilets and taps in those well and septic areas near DC the author is referring to.
You can still use cloud products in areas where there's not fibre/ultra-broadband internet. You just have to put up with a little bit of shit every now and then - much like having a backyard septic!
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Been running a setup like that for over 6 years. It’s great. Support is ridiculously easy. Desktop refreshes aren’t bad either and that’s one of the most difficult projects for an IT department to pull off. We’ve done a couple of them now - once to add RAM, disk and CPU and another to change the desktop image. Deployments and big jobs like opening new offices or big moves are simple. The video is easy to fix with a f…
Printing with terminal services still kind of sucks and for large print jobs there's still third party print services, but otherwise I'd agree.
It’s not terminal services. We are using VMware horizon. Printing is fine. USB scanning is a little slow but most people don’t seem to notice.
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#57There's still large areas just 35 miles from DC that don't have high speed internet. The cloud is STILL just for people who never leave the range of high speed internet.
Shit, my company is in a 8 million+ people suburb and we pay $5k/month just for guaranteed 50 mbps internet. And we are saturating it too easily as is :/ A gigabit connection was quoted at ~ $80k/month. (The line is already fiber, it's literally just throttling). Which is insane considering that's 12 peoples salary in a year.
Wow, where do you live?
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#58I must be missing something. It's not immediately clear to me, even after reading the article, how this is different from just procuring a Windows OS VM in Azure. Pricing?
Was wondering the same thing. Is this Azures version of AWS Workspaces?
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#59Is this Azures version of AWS Workspaces?
Re: Microsoft’s Windows Virtual Desktop service is now generally available
#60Did anyone even test the process. It has failed a dozen times in different way.