The way we work, communicate and collaborate has completely changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with fully remote or hybrid working here to stay, more businesses are turning to virtual desktops, and Azure Virtual Desktop in particular, to facilitate a seamless experience for their employees.
Read on to discover our tips for maximising productivity in Azure Virtual Desktop for Windows 11.
What is a Virtual Desktop?
A virtual desktop is a full desktop that runs on a remote server, enabling users to securely access work applications and data from any location and on any device. This allows for a more efficient workflow, saving you time, money, and resources.
In this article, we will focus primarily on how to maximise your team’s productivity with Azure Virtual Desktop for Windows 11. For a more general overview of the benefits of using Azure Virtual Desktop for remote working, read this article we posted last year.
Azure Virtual Desktop for Windows 11
Windows 11 is Microsoft’s latest OS, designed and built from the ground up for hybrid working.
Azure Virtual Desktop (formerly known as Windows Virtual Desktop) is Microsoft’s Desktop-as-a-Service solution, delivering a fully functional desktop experience to its users, regardless of location. It is the gold standard of virtual desktops, providing a truly seamless user experience for employees and empowering them to work securely wherever they are.
Azure Virtual Desktop can be easily integrated with your existing IT infrastructure using a hybrid cloud model or it can operate as a standalone service, depending on your needs.
Benefits of Azure Virtual Desktop
Some of the benefits of using Azure Virtual Desktop for remote working include:
Advanced security features
Working from home poses a whole new set of risks when it comes to cybersecurity, with 36% of employees reportedly backing up corporate data to their personal devices.
They may also be connecting to their home and work networks on the same devices without following proper security procedures, which can leave the company network vulnerable to attacks.
With dispersed workers using a broad range of devices to work, connect, and collaborate from different locations, protecting company data is of the utmost importance. Azure Virtual Desktop helps with this by providing secure cloud infrastructure, allowing your business to benefit from Azure’s multi-layered, built-in security controls.
So, you can restrict sensitive information while allowing employees to access what they need to work efficiently!
Seamless user experience
Whether your employees are at home, in the office, on the train, or out on-site visits, they need to have the same user experience wherever they are. In addition, you need to be able to manage access to company data and applications.
Azure Virtual Desktop has built-in automation capabilities to support your workflows and provides an easy way to grant your team access to the apps and software they need wherever they are.
Easy to scale
You can provide virtual desktops to as many users as you like, with the ability to scale up or down your users as required.
Tips For Maximising Productivity In Azure Virtual Desktop For Windows 11
Being organised is the key to being more productive, and Azure Virtual Desktop for Windows 11 has several tools to help with this:
Multiple Virtual Desktops
First up is the ability to have multiple virtual desktops on one device.
This is a game-changer when it comes to productivity, allowing you to create separate virtual desktops for different uses, e.g. one for work and one for personal use. This means that all your data and applications are kept separate and organised, eliminating the need to cycle through endless open tabs and minimised windows to find what you’re looking for.
To create a new desktop or toggle between existing ones on Windows 11, simply scroll over Task View on the Taskbar or hit the Windows key plus Tab.
By keeping your work-related software and apps in their own dedicated space, you can focus your attention on the task at hand.
Snap Layouts
For those who like to multitask, this is a handy feature that allows you to group apps and windows together.
By structuring your screen in whatever way makes sense to you, you can streamline your workflow and keep your information neatly organised.
Using Snap Layouts is simple and intuitive. Simply hover your mouse over a window’s ‘maximise’ button, select a layout, and click on a zone to snap the window into place.
You can group multiple windows in your preferred layout, and minimise or maximise the group from the taskbar as needed.
The right tools for each person
With Azure Virtual Desktop, admins can easily set up different pre-configured virtual desktops to allow each user to have quick access to apps most applicable to them.
This means that each user can have a more focused, more streamlined working environment without having a host of unnecessary tools clogging up their user experience.
If disaster strikes, everyone can be back up and running quickly
Azure Virtual Desktop helps to eliminate downtime but should some IT disaster occur, it can also allow your team to get back up and running in no time at all where they may have had lost hours or days otherwise.
Rolling Out Azure Virtual Desktop In Your Business
At Calnet IT Solutions, we are proud to be a Microsoft Gold partner. This means that we have earned the highest level of competency available as part of Microsoft’s widely-recognised partnership program, giving you peace of mind when it comes to choosing the right service provider for your business.
From secure backups to virtual desktops, our cloud services are a cost-effective, innovative solution to managing your IT infrastructure and optimising your workflow.
To find out more about boosting your team’s productivity with Windows 11 and Azure Virtual Desktop, get in touch with us today.