Updated Dec. 9., 2024

The hybrid workforce is here to stay.  By 2025, 82% of businesses are expected to have implemented a hybrid work model, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. The shift in how and where employees work, as well as increasing cloud migration, have played a part in desktop virtualization becoming a common part of the employee experience for many people. 

There are many other factors in favor of moving to virtual desktops. One is that companies are broadening use of virtual desktops across their workforce to give employees more flexibility. Another is that they are making themselves attractive to a wider pool of remote talent with hard-to-find expertise who don’t want to move to take a job. Desktop virtualization is also a vital asset for providing business continuity.

Virtual desktops save costs, too. And with a virtual desktop model, there’s less complexity for IT operations, especially when businesses partner with service providers to implement and operate fully managed end-to-end virtual desktop infrastructure and applications.

Address virtual desktop security concerns

IT security and policy compliance has always challenged desktop virtualization deployments and is probably one of the biggest reasons some companies have remained hesitant to adopt it widely. With the ability to take advantage of the native Azure security features in Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD), including multi-factor authentication, company leaders can be more confident about tightening security and compliance.

Assuring the right cyber-security foundation was in place for desktop virtualization was a major goal for one of our customers in the U.K. public sector, so that it could maintain compliance with its IT security standards and policies. We were able to address that issue for its 2,000-plus users with our Virtual Desktop and Application Services solution based on Azure-native WVD, which leverages our comprehensive virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and managed desktop virtualization and application service offerings including managed security services.

Our customer’s timeline and constraints called for us to move fast, and we deployed a turnkey solution that included design and implementation — as well as ongoing support — in just 6 weeks. Now the project is expanding to increase the number of business applications and the organization has the flexibility to quickly and easily expand the solution for more users.

We were one of the first Microsoft partners to receive the WVD Microsoft Advanced Specialization certification, which recognizes our expertise in deploying, optimizing, and securing VDI on Azure with WVD. This attests to our understanding and experience in helping businesses create the right VDI design and model — public cloud or hybrid deployments — for WVD. We’re proud of this recognition and validation of DXC as a trusted provider to deliver a comprehensive solution for WVD environments.

Learn more about DXC Modern Workplace.

About the author

About the author

Patricia Wilkey is DXC’s Microsoft Practice Lead.