Drawing a Line of Difference Between Microsoft’s DaaS Products – Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 Cloud PC

Microsoft used its virtual Inspire event as a launchpad for many of the most awaited solutions. Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, Windows 365 Cloud PC, Microsoft Viva updates, availability of Dynamics 365 data in Microsoft Teams are some of the announcements that captured the attention of many. As an industry veteran and Microsoft Gold partner, I would like to take an opportunity to educate my readers on the differences and similarities between the two Microsoft products in the DaaS space - Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and Windows 365 Cloud PC.  

• Technical Architecture  

The control plane of both the Desktop as a Service (DaaS) products are the same and it resides in Azure. The Azure Virtual Desktop customer is charged according to the resources he/she uses in the environment. Whereas Windows 365 Cloud PC users don’t have direct access to the computing resources and as a result, they don’t incur the related costs. AVD users have full flexibility to choose from the range of available OS disks and they have the rights to define the data backup methods and frequency. Windows 365 Cloud PC users have limited or no flexibility while it comes to choosing the OS disks.  

• IT Admin Experience 

Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 Cloud PC are strikingly different as far as the IT admin experience is concerned. Azure Virtual Desktop is managed using Azure concepts, whereas the management of Windows 365 Cloud PC is similar to managing physical PCs. For example, Azure Virtual Desktops are managed from Azure Portals and PowerShell scripts and Windows 365 Cloud PCs are managed using Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM). However, the business version of Windows 365 Cloud PC is an exception here. The sessions on Azure Virtual Desktop are backed up with the tools Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup. Presently, there are no native backup tools or applications for the sessions hosted in Windows 365 Cloud PC, third-party applications need to be used for the same. Azure Virtual Desktops are charged on usage basis and the auto-scaling functionality can be used to cut down on the compute and storage costs. Windows 365 Cloud PC is priced using a fixed model where the user is charged even if he/she doesn’t use their desktop for a month.  

 The networking flexibility remains the same for Windows 365 Cloud PC and Azure Virtual Desktop.  

• End User Experience  

The end user experiences are the same for Windows 365 Cloud PC and Azure Virtual Desktop. The Microsoft, Android, Mac and iOS users can connect to either of them using the same application. As Windows 365 Cloud PC is built on top of Azure Virtual Desktop environment, the interfaces are almost identical giving users a unified experience across all the devices. The security controls such as multi-factor authentication and other protection methods remain same as this aspect is governed through Azure Active Directory.  

• Licensing Costs and Infrastructure Arrangements  

The license cost is differentiated on several aspects such as compute and storage, networking, access to Microsoft Intune and other Microsoft 365 applications. AVD users are billed according to consumption of Azure resources such as its compute, OS disks, files and FSLogix Storage. Windows 365 Cloud PC users are billed on the basis of licenses they use. With these licenses only, the users are given a specific amount of compute, RAM and storage capacity. Microsoft Intune is mandatory for Windows 365 Cloud PC whereas the same is not required for Azure Virtual Desktop. AVD users require Windows 365 subscription license with shared computer activation entitlement. Windows 365 Cloud PCs are already equipped with shared computer entitlement and hence the Windows users won’t require it.