Transitioning from On-Premises VDI to Native Azure Virtual Desktop

For years, on-premises Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions such as Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops or VMware Horizon provided the standard blueprint for centralised desktop delivery. However, as hybrid working becomes permanently embedded and enterprise cloud environments mature, traditional VDI environments are increasingly viewed as complex, costly, and resource-intensive to maintain.

IT teams are therefore re-evaluating how they deliver remote desktops, with many considering a move to native Azure Virtual Desktop. AVD can simplify operations, reduce reliance on third-party licensing and make greater use of existing Microsoft investments.

As a leading Azure Virtual Desktop partner, we wanted to share why organisations are retiring legacy VDI platforms in favour of native Azure infrastructure, and how to execute a seamless transition.

The Pressure on Legacy On-Premises VDI

While traditional VDI served its purpose in static, office-bound environments, managing it in a cloud-first era introduces distinct operational challenges:

• Expensive hardware: On-premises hypervisors require capital-intensive server refreshes every three to five years, requiring IT teams to predict capacity requirements far in advance.
• Licensing Duplication: Running third-party virtualisation stacks and modern Microsoft cloud subscriptions often means paying twice for management layers, broker services, and support contracts.
• Operational Overhead: Maintaining complex arrays of gateway servers, load balancers, database backends, and license servers consumes valuable IT time that could be spent on higher-value digital transformation initiatives.
• User Experience Bottlenecks: Legacy VDI architectures often struggle to deliver smooth video conferencing and multimedia performance across collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams without expensive performance add-ons.

Why Migrate to Azure Virtual Desktop?

Azure Virtual Desktop is a cloud-based desktop and app virtualisation service running on Microsoft Azure. Transitioning to a cloud-native model delivers significant strategic and financial advantages including:

1. Financial Efficiency and License Optimisation

Many organisations already hold eligible Microsoft 365 licences, such as Microsoft 365 E3, E5 or Business Premium, which include user access rights for Azure Virtual Desktop. Azure infrastructure costs, including compute, storage and networking, still apply

Furthermore, AVD supports Windows 11 and Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session capabilities. This allows multiple users to run concurrent sessions on a single Azure virtual machine while retaining an isolated user experience, dramatically lowering per-user compute costs compared to traditional one-to-one desktop allocations.

2. Simplified Platform Management

With AVD, Microsoft manages the underlying VDI infrastructure components, including brokers, gateways, web access, and management databases. Your IT team simply manages the virtual machines, application packages, user access policies, and host pools through the unified Azure Portal or Microsoft Intune.

3. Integrated Security and Zero Trust Architecture

AVD integrates natively with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), enabling robust conditional access policies, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and dynamic risk-based controls. Because company data resides securely inside your Azure cloud tenant rather than on local user endpoints, device compliance and data protection are maintained across all remote working scenarios.

4. Seamless Microsoft 365 Performance

AVD is built specifically to support Microsoft 365 Apps. User profiles detach and attach seamlessly to virtual machines upon sign-in. This delivers fast login times and native-feeling email indexing, file syncing, and Microsoft Teams multimedia redirection.

Key Considerations for a Smooth Migration

Moving from an established Citrix or VMware environment to AVD requires structured planning to ensure operational continuity and user adoption.

Essential Steps in the Transition Pathway

1. User Profiling and Workload Assessment: Categorize users based on their compute demands, application requirements, and concurrency patterns. Identify lightweight office workers who can share multi-session host pools versus power users requiring dedicated personal VMs.
2. Application Modernisation: Evaluate legacy application stacks. Where possible, package applications using modern deployment technologies like MSIX App Attach, which streams applications to virtual desktops dynamically without needing to embed them directly into the core OS master image.
3. Network Architecture and Latency Optimisation: Ensure hybrid connectivity is established using Azure ExpressRoute or secure VPN connections to connect AVD host pools safely to remaining on-premises databases and line-of-business systems.
4. Pilot Phase and Benchmarking: Deploy a structured Proof of Concept (PoC) to validate user experience, test application compatibility, and establish baseline performance metrics before rolling out to wider business units.

Start your Azure Virtual Desktop journey today

Migrating from legacy virtualisation platforms to Azure Virtual Desktop is not merely a technical upgrade; it is a strategic business decision that streamlines IT management, enhances security, and optimises ongoing operational costs.

As a trusted Microsoft Partner and Azure Virtual Desktop consultancy, Bridgeall helps organisations design, build, and manage secure cloud desktop environments tailored to their operational goals. From initial infrastructure assessments and cost modelling to complete migration execution and ongoing support, we ensure your transition to Azure Virtual Desktop delivers immediate value.