When we talk of some of the heavyweights of the cloud industry, Microsoft is sure to make that list. In a recent development, Microsoft seems all set to roll out a few enhancements to its Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) platform.
Although these enhancements have not yet been formally incorporated, it seems they will be available for public preview over the coming few days or weeks. The first change, and the most obvious one, is the new name that is “Azure Virtual Desktop”.
Being the owner of the Windows operating system, Microsoft enjoys a unique competitive edge in the cloud Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) market by offering a multi-session Windows environment. To this day, it remains the only player to be able to do this.
The cloud VDI offering by Microsoft witnessed a massive demand hike during the days of the pandemic, as remote work became a mainstream trend. By re-branding WVD to Azure Virtual Desktop, Microsoft seems well poised to enhance the scope of its offering.
The focal points of these enhancements include better security, quick scalability and ease of management. Flexibility and a seamless end user experience still remain the hallmark of the enhanced version of Windows Virtual Desktop.
A notable enhancement is Single Sign-on (SSO) support, which reduces the time users have to spend on signing in. This is otherwise a step towards improved security, as Microsoft plans to eliminate passwords and replace them with biometric user authentication.
Microsoft Endpoint Manager aims to simplify and streamline the management of Virtual Machines (VM) to a great extent. By using this feature, cloud managers will have a unified visibility of both their physical devices as well as virtual desktops.
We will soon be getting a glimpse of the enhancements made to the Windows Virtual Desktop platform. Only the test of time will determine whether this change to Azure Virtual Desktop truly lives up to the expectations of the cloud users or otherwise.
