Azure
Azure Virtual Desktop
Secure desktops, delivered from Azure. Configured so they do not cost more than the laptops they replaced. Valto designs, deploys and cost-optimises Azure Virtual Desktop: replacing legacy VDI, giving contractors and third parties secure access without issuing hardware, and keeping data off the endpoint in regulated environments. Our Azure specialists also help organisations work out whether AVD or Windows 365 is the right answer before anything gets built.
Trusted by organisations like yours
Modern desktop experiences without the complexity
Supporting a modern workforce brings new challenges. Employees need secure access to applications and data, while IT teams need greater control, flexibility and visibility. Most organisations arrive at this from one of four directions: a legacy VDI platform whose licensing has become hard to justify, a compliance requirement that data must not sit on the endpoint, a need to give contractors or a newly acquired team access without shipping hardware, or a business continuity plan that currently depends on everyone having their laptop with them. Valto starts with which of those you are solving, because the answer changes the design. Our Azure specialists size and architect the environment, decide with you whether AVD or Windows 365 fits, migrate from your existing platform, and put the autoscaling and governance in place that determines what it costs to run. We then keep reviewing it, because utilisation patterns change and virtual desktop costs drift.
What can Valto deliver?
Our specialists assess your users, applications, existing platform and licensing before recommending an approach, including whether Azure Virtual Desktop is the right answer at all.
AVD or Windows 365: the decision
Work out which fits before anything is built. AVD gives you control, custom images and cost levers; Windows 365 gives you a fixed per-user price and far less to manage. The right answer depends on your workloads, your IT capacity and how predictable your user numbers are, and for many organisations it is both, for different groups of people.
Replacing legacy VDI
Migrate from Citrix, VMware Horizon or Remote Desktop Services, with application discovery, image build, user profile migration and a phased cutover. Licensing changes in that market have made this a live cost conversation for a lot of organisations.
Architecture and security
Design the host pools, images, identity, conditional access, network and data residency so that nothing lands on the endpoint and access is governed properly. This is the part that makes AVD defensible in a regulated environment.
Contractor and third-party access
Give temporary users, contractors, offshore teams or a newly acquired business secure access to your applications on their own hardware, without procuring devices or extending your domain to machines you do not control.
Cost optimisation and governance
Right-size session hosts, configure autoscaling and start/stop schedules, choose the correct storage tier for profiles, and apply reserved or savings plan commitments where the workload justifies it. This is where AVD becomes affordable or does not.
Managed support
Ongoing monitoring, patching, image management, capacity and cost review for organisations that would rather not build the internal capability to run a virtual desktop estate.
Our Azure Virtual Desktop services
Build the right virtual desktop roadmap
We help organisations assess requirements, identify use cases and determine where Azure Virtual Desktop fits within their wider workplace and infrastructure strategy. That includes the honest version of the question: whether AVD, Windows 365, managed physical devices or some combination is right for each group of users. Most organisations do not need one answer for everybody.
Common virtual desktop challenges we solve
Expertise for the issues that stop virtual desktops delivering
Many organisations struggle to balance security, flexibility, cost and user experience when supporting remote and hybrid work. Common challenges include:
- Secure remote access, without data ending up on devices you do not control
- A legacy VDI platform whose licensing costs have become hard to justify
- Device management complexity across a mixed and partly personal estate
- Virtual desktop costs higher than the physical estate they replaced
- Contractors, third parties and acquired teams needing access without corporate hardware
- Business continuity plans that assume everyone has their laptop with them
What can you do with Azure Virtual Desktop?
Common engagements Valto delivers for our clients.
Application virtualisation
Deliver business-critical applications, including older software that will not move to SaaS, without installing anything locally.
Contractor and temporary workforce access
Give temporary users, offshore teams and newly acquired staff secure access without issuing corporate devices.
Regulated and sensitive work
Keep data inside Azure rather than on endpoints, with access governed by identity and conditional access rather than by hardware.
Business continuity
Keep people working when an office, a site or a set of devices becomes unavailable.
Centralised desktop management
Deploy, patch and update from one place rather than per machine.
Seasonal and variable capacity
Add and remove desktop capacity as headcount changes, without procuring or storing hardware.
Turn virtual desktops into business value
Azure Virtual Desktop is only worth doing if the numbers, the security position or the flexibility improve on what you have. Our specialists target the work where one of those changes measurably.
We're one of the UK's few Microsoft partners to hold all Microsoft Solution Partner designation badges, across all Solution Partner designation pathways. For our clients, that means access to specialists who understand Azure, identity, security and modern workplace technologies, and who will tell you when Azure Virtual Desktop is not the right answer. Whether you're deploying it for the first time, migrating from another platform or trying to bring an existing environment's costs under control, we help organisations create secure and scalable digital workplaces.
Why organisations choose Valto
Connected, across Microsoft
A virtual desktop is an identity problem before it is a desktop problem
Who someone is, what they are allowed to reach, and from which device, are decided by Entra ID, conditional access and Intune rather than by the desktop itself. Get that layer wrong and you have moved your security problem into Azure rather than solved it. Valto brings together expertise across Azure infrastructure, Entra ID, Intune, security, Microsoft 365 and the wider modern workplace. That lets our specialists design the identity and access model alongside the environment, connect virtual desktops to the Microsoft 365 services people work in all day, and recognise when the answer is a change to how devices are managed rather than another platform. The result is secure, connected workspaces where access is governed by who somebody is rather than by what hardware they happen to be holding.
How we deliver Azure Virtual Desktop projects
Our five-step process is clear and transparent from start to finish. From establishing which problem you are solving and what your applications actually require, through to a sized, governed environment people can work in and a cost you can predict.
1Discovery
Current environment & objectives
We assess existing desktop infrastructure, user requirements and business goals, including application discovery, current licensing and what the estate costs you today.
2Strategy
The right virtual desktop approach
Together, we define architecture, security requirements and operational considerations, and agree whether AVD, Windows 365 or a combination fits each group of users.
3Deployment
Modern desktop delivery
We implement Azure Virtual Desktop environments configured around your users and workloads, and migrate from your existing platform in phases with a pilot group first.
4Adoption
Support your workforce
We help users transition smoothly to new working environments with training and guidance, focused on the groups whose day changes most.
5Optimisation
Keep ahead
As utilisation patterns change, we help optimise performance, cost and security, with scheduled reviews rather than only when something goes wrong.
Case study · Grŵp Cynefin
Valto cuts Grŵp Cynefin's maintenance costs with Azure hybrid infrastructure and virtual desktops
Grŵp Cynefin worked with Valto to strengthen security, enable remote access for a distributed workforce and reduce maintenance costs, moving to Azure hybrid infrastructure with Azure Virtual Desktop.
- Reduced IT costs
- Azure Virtual Desktops deployed
- Seamless transition
The team driving you forward
“Valto recently delivered an excellent Azure Virtual Desktop environment, expertly project managed by Kerina, while the team has also supported us with security hardening across our Microsoft environment. Having worked with a number of Microsoft partners over the years, I can genuinely say that, in my opinion, Valto are the best in the business. ”
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Questions, answered plainly
Practical answers on how Azure Virtual Desktop compares with Windows 365, what it actually costs to run, whether personal devices are safe to use, and what migrating from Citrix, VMware or Remote Desktop Services involves.
FREE VIRTUAL DESKTOP CONSULTATION
Ready to modernise desktop delivery?
Whether you're weighing AVD against Windows 365, replacing a legacy VDI platform, needing to give contractors secure access, or trying to bring an existing environment's costs under control, our specialists can help identify the right next step.
Azure infrastructure specialists
Speak directly with consultants who design and deliver Azure solutions every day.
Practical advice
Clear recommendations focused on security, flexibility and business outcomes.
We will tell you if it is the wrong fit
We deliver AVD and Windows 365 both, and sometimes the answer is neither.