If you are considering moving your fleet of desktops over to a Microsoft VDI or DaaS solution, you might be asking yourself what the difference between Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop is. Each option provides fully functional cloud operating systems. Primarily, the differences between the two come down to subscription model, features, and the level of control afforded by the service.

Significant differences between Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop :

- Windows 365 resource subscriptions are managed by Microsoft.

- Azure Virtual Desktop provides usage-based cost while Windows 365 is fixed.

- Windows 365 disks are more difficult to backup than the alternative.

- Azure Virtual Desktop requires Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS).

When your team is reviewing all their options around implementing Microsoft VDI or DaaS solutions, differences in the subscriptions and programs can be very confusing. Should you start with Windows 365 and then move on to Azure Virtual Desktop for scale? Is there better integration with my Office 365 subscription if I use Windows 365? We do a deep dive here so you can be prepared to implement a virtual desktop fleet.

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How the subscription you choose impacts resource management

Choosing the resource subscription model that is right for your business is important to your eventual cost and control over DaaS fleets. It is important to identify what your subscription needs are going to be before implementing any solutions. In the case of Windows 365, all your resource subscriptions are managed by Microsoft.

That means there is a fixed cost for each individual desktop. If you decide to utilize the Windows 365 program then your price per desktop will range from $31.00 user/month on the basic package, up to $66.00 user/month with the Premium package. Enterprise customers will enjoy access to the Microsoft Endpoint Manager to take advantage of easy integration with other Microsoft services.

Another option on the table is to go with Azure Virtual Desktop to meet your cloud VDI needs. Primarily, this allows system administrators to have control over the underlying resources and the hosts in Azure providing them. With this enhanced control, admins can potentially decrease overall costs of the fleet, but this only makes sense when the organization has enough qualified professionals to manage the implementation and enough purchased licenses to qualify for the Enterprise program.

What separates the way Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop are priced

Windows 365 is based on a static pricing model. You pay by the user/month which means as your company scales, so will your costs. This provides a level of consistency that you can depend on throughout the budget process. Unfortunately, it also means you do not have much control on decreasing that expense except by limiting access.

With Azure Virtual Desktop you get a lot of features for managing the scale of your Virtual Desktops. Azure Automation allows you to scale session hosts as they are needed. This can reduce your total Azure Virtual Desktop deployment cost. It also means that you can shut off hosts supporting clients and remove the resources associated with them. Then when the team is pushing hard again, just reallocate them to compensate for peak hours demand.

There are three main methods of scaling with Azure Virtual Desktop. One is the time of the day and whether your infrastructure is operating during peak hours. This is convenient when you are sure of resource needs throughout the day. You can also simply scale VM usage based on the number of sessions per processor core on the host. Lastly, a split between the two is implementing scaling only during off-hours.

Managing disks in Windows 365 vs Azure Virtual Desktop

Within Windows 365 you do not have any control over disks on the client virtual machines. This subscription model is based on simplicity and ease of use. Organizations looking to limit the requirement for external technical resources sometimes lean this way to keep the roll-out easy and limit implementation risk.

It is a unique experience when you work with Azure Virtual Desktop because controls are provided over all the disk storage. One example of this is the implementation of FSLogix. FSLogix takes user profiles in Windows environments and enhances them for remote environments. It includes containers for Office and the users Profile along with Application masking and Java Version Control. Centralizing user profiles prevents them from needing to be copied all over the network when a user changes location.

Along with FSLogix, system administrators have control over the OS (Operating System) disks as well when leveraging an Azure Virtual Desktop subscription. If users need space on a specific desktop, then it is no problem to increase the drive size. It is also easy to change the speed and response latency from those drives for high-performance situations.

Implementing Group Policies and Application Containers in Azure Virtual Desktop

When organizations are considering moving their on-premises applications and desktops to the cloud with a “lift-and-shift" mentality, Azure Active Directory (AAD) is an essential component to consider. It is the service in Azure that allows clients and applications to authenticate with user credentials, like what Active Directory (AD) does for a company locally.

That said, there are significant differences between AD and AAD. AAD does not support some Active Directory features that are key to some organization's infrastructure. One example of this is the ability to control and roll-out group policies to desktop clients. Azure Active Directory does not support group policies, application containers, or an extensible schema.

This can prove to be a problem for organizations looking to adopt Windows 365 because it only supports AAD and not its upgraded cousin, Azure Active Directory Domain Services (AADDS). If your team is interested in supporting the identity needs of cloud applications along with rolling out security policies to clients, then you should consider going with Azure Virtual Desktop.

Business Justification for VDI

- Delivers platform as a service (PaaS) limiting the need to procure and deploy clients.

- No capital expenses are incurred up front.

- You get new features and security fast because it is managed by the provider.

- Drive the cost of your desktop deployments down with increased control over resource usage.

Thinking through the requirements for your virtual desktop provider is especially important to your success. One solid component in your planning process will be to develop a list of business justifications for review by a larger group of stakeholders. The most impactful changes that come from moving your clients to the cloud come from your new-found ability to control team expenses and resources. While there are differences between the programs provided by Microsoft, you will be able to limit your up-front capital expense by eliminating the need to purchase high-dollar laptops and desktops.

Help choosing which service is right for you

To give your company and users the experience they need to perform at their peak, your implementation team will need to understand all the requirements driving the adoption of virtual desktops. Hybrid work with remote employees has been on the rise over the past few years because of the added pressures of COVID, but do not let that rush you past the important planning and POC phases of the project. Schedule a conversation with JumpRoom to find out how our platform and services can help your team adopt and take advantage of DaaS.