Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) | Scaling plans and Autoscaling

While I appreciate Microsoft finally having an integrated scaling solution, it is painfully basic. I am a Microsoft Certified Trainier giving AVD training and conducting workshops and have been struggling selling AVD for a year now. AVD is complex. AVD is just a platform, not a solution.

   Now, things starting to change, partners and myself are excited about AVD again since I started training and selling AVD using Nerdio MSP. 

Their scaling allows me to even use Session Hosts with Ephemeral Disks, which are slightly more expensive (like 10$/month more for a D4ds vs a D4s), but do not need a managed disk and have *zero* disk cost while running and zero cost when not running (obviously, since they cannot be stopped/started, but are always created and destroyed) - and have 50% better Disk I/O throughput.

   Even for a partner starting with a customer with just 25 AVD-enabled employees, I save so much compute and storage cost, that the 12$/seat license I pay covers 75% of the Nerdio license (compared to a 3-year RI calculation). The remaining 25% are equivalent to an Swiss IT guys average 1h work rate, around 80$.

   And their solution is production ready. Now if you compare it with the scaling solution Microsoft is providing, the cost saving is less, but you cannot compare the scaling plan functionality with Nerdios'. It is so much more powerful, light years ahead. Check out the print screen and you will understand what I mean. You will end up with the 3-year RI solution that many customers opted for, because setting up and maintaining Scaling is either lacking functionality (like the new Scaling Plans) or too complex (Azure Automation).

   Do a FULL COST calculation and you will see that (at least in a place like Switzerland, where labor is expensive), a solution like Nerdio might be a better fit - and saves you A LOT of headaches. In my case, using Swiss labor rates and comparing how much MORE time you need to maintain AVD WITHOUT a proper tooling like Nerdio MSP, we save 39%, from a TCO perspective.

   Best of all, this Friday, May 6th, they roll out a release that allows me to use AADJ with FSLogix (using Blob storage), so bye bye to two DC's and two days of work for cloud native customers (our instruction manual ist over a hundred pages long for this seamless SSO setup with ADFS). If you are not experienced with Azure, you need a week to set this up, if you hire me, I will do it in two days. If you have Nerdio MSP, you have this up and running before lunch time. 😊

   Reach out to me if you are based in Switzerland and I will demo you the magic.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g41BqzJGDMCIYqiiCc0T_6oyne6LKj81/view?usp=sharing