We’re thrilled to announce the first-ever Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) optimization for Microsoft Teams in Amazon WorkSpaces for Windows endpoints—a major milestone for AWS customers seeking a high-performance Microsoft Teams experience in virtual environments.
A First for AWS Customers
Until now, Amazon WorkSpaces users lacked access to a fully optimized Teams experience. This release marks the introduction of VDI support for Teams in AWS environments, bringing long-requested capabilities to both Personal WorkSpaces and WorkSpaces Windows client configuration.
What’s Included
This new solution introduces multimedia offloading and optimization powered by the SlimCore Media engine, enabling:
- High-definition audio and video
- Smooth screen sharing
- Reduced latency and improved reliability
Media processing is offloaded to the local device, delivering a native-like Teams experience even in virtual desktop setups. This update applies exclusively to Amazon WorkSpaces when connecting from a device running the Windows Workspaces Client —AppStream and other platforms are not supported.
Why It Matters
For many organizations, including vendors and contractors working across tenants, VDI is essential for secure collaboration. With this release, users can expect:
- Improved call quality and responsiveness
- Feature parity with desktop Teams clients
- Greater reliability for external collaboration scenarios
To highlight the impact, André Akkerman, Director of Workplace Technology at Wolters Kluwer, shared:
“Our Amazon WorkSpaces users initially faced some challenges with Microsoft Teams video conferencing, including connection stability, system performance, and audio-video quality. These technical limitations impacted our ability to provide a rich collaboration service in our remote and hybrid work virtual environment. Working together with AWS and Microsoft, we implemented MS Teams Optimization for Amazon WorkSpaces across our global user base in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific regions. The results have been outstanding.”
From Microsoft’s perspective, Juan Rivera, Corporate Vice President, added:
“Microsoft Teams users expect seamless collaboration experiences across any environment,” said Juan Rivera, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft. “With Teams VDI2 optimization, we are delivering innovative capabilities that transform virtual desktop performance, offering rich functionality, smooth audio and video experiences, and exceptional reliability. By enabling direct endpoint routing for media traffic, organizations can provide employees with the high-quality Teams experience they expect while maintaining flexibility and optimizing infrastructure costs.”
Getting Started
To begin using Teams with VDI optimization in Amazon WorkSpaces, please visit our website and ensure your WorkSpaces environment is configured for the new Teams VDI optimization based on SlimCore (link to documentation).
This feature is in Public Preview – please follow these steps in order to move users to that ring using the ‘Teams update policies’ in Teams Admin Center.
For GA announcements, please follow our public roadmap entry.
Microsoft