Microsoft Ignite Session ID: BRK147
November 20, 2025
Roop Kiran Chevuri, Principal Product Management Lead, Microsoft
Mark Douglas, Vice President Services, SLB
Eric Orman, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft
Azure Virtual Desktop continues to evolve, helping you enhance management efficiency, scalability, and connectivity for your workloads. Learn about the latest innovations in Azure Virtual Desktop, understand why it is especially attractive to industries like healthcare, and discover how to accelerate your cloud migration with Azure Virtual Desktop.
TL;DR Summary
Market Leadership & Value
- Microsoft remains leader in Gartner’s DaaS Magic Quadrant for 3 consecutive years.
- Forrester TEI study shows cost savings + productivity gains with AVD & Windows 365.
Key Innovations Delivered
- Session host configuration: Ephemeral disks + automated image updates
- App attach: Expanded beyond MSIX to App-V + 3rd-party partners.
- OneDrive in RemoteApp + Hibernate for personal desktops.
- Always-current images with FSLogix prebuilt, monthly updates, day-0 support.
- Windows 10 ESU entitlement free in Azure.
- Multi-desktop assignment + direct launch URLs.
- Multi-monitor support in web client.
- Azure Files with cloud-only identities → full cloud deployments possible.
Hybrid Deployment Expansion
- AVD Hybrid via Azure Arc: Run AVD on existing hypervisors (VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix).
- Simple setup: VM → Host Pool → Arc agent + AVD extension.
- Provides incremental path from on-prem to cloud.
- Launch partners: ControlUp, Login VSI, Nerdio, Nutanix.
External Collaboration (B2B)
- True B2B support: External users can log in with their own identity.
- Works with Antra guest accounts, conditional access, MFA enforcement.
- Per-user access pricing ensures compliance + licensing.
- Fully compatible with FSLogix.
Customer Story (SLB)
- Oil field services company using AVD for graphically intensive apps (Petrel XD, Delphi).External users log in securely with MFA + their own identity.
- Seamless access to large-scale seismic data at 60 FPS.
- Integration with Microsoft 365 tools for reporting.
Resiliency Focus
- Metadata placement by geography.
- Ongoing work to ensure failover + resiliency if a region goes down.
Bottom Line
AVD continues to lead the DaaS market with innovations in automation, hybrid flexibility, external collaboration (B2B), and cloud-only deployments—while ensuring performance, security, and cost optimization.
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Chapters:
0:00 – App Attach enhancements and expanded third-party support
00:07:02 – General availability of Azure Virtual Desktop B2B access with enhanced security and identity controls
00:08:31 – Overview of per-user access pricing and external user licensing for AVD
00:12:15 – SLB demo: Secure B2B login using Azure Virtual Desktop with MFA
00:20:28 – Configuring dynamic auto scale with 100% minimum active hosts
00:22:40 – Transition to user experience improvements in Azure Virtual Desktop
00:25:09 – Major Breakthrough: Introduction of RDP Multipath Capability
00:26:11 – Multipath Demo Showing Failover Without User Disconnection
00:32:25 – New Migration API for Moving VDI Desktops to Windows 365