Service · IT infrastructure

Virtual desktops and VDI

Now that home working sits inside company agreements, the same question keeps returning: how does an employee reach the line-of-business software from the kitchen table without the data leaving with them? A virtual desktop is among the tidiest answers. Windows and your applications run in a European data centre, while the laptop, tablet or thin client on the desk simply paints the picture. Nothing is copied locally, a new starter has a working seat within minutes, and a machine left on a train no longer carries a single customer file.

Europe
where the data stays
Minutes
to open a new seat
MFA
on every sign-in
At night
hosts power down

Where this service reaches

Not everyone needs a dedicated virtual machine. We match the model to concurrent users, to the software involved and to the monthly budget.

Put your scope to an engineer

Picking the model

Azure Virtual Desktop on shared hosts, Windows 365 at a flat price per person, or a session host with a French provider such as OVHcloud or Scaleway.

Region and data

Hosts run in a European region, which makes life easier with your data protection officer, with the record of processing and with clients who ask where their files actually sit.

Profiles and applications

User profiles handled by FSLogix, software either baked into the base image or published as RemoteApp. A business suite or a payroll tool behaves as it would on an ordinary desk.

Security

Entra ID sign-in with MFA and conditional access, and no RDP port facing the internet. For an accountancy practice or a health centre we also block the clipboard, USB drives and local printing.

End devices

Ageing laptops, thin clients, staff-owned computers: anything with a current browser or a Remote Desktop client will serve.

Keeping the bill down

Autoscaling starts hosts in the morning, stops them in the evening and keeps a minimum at weekends. A consumption statement reaches you every month.

The way an engagement runs

The timeline follows the number of users and the applications that have to move. We always open with a pilot.

01

Analysis

How many people work at the same moment, on which applications and from which devices. Those figures produce the expected monthly cost.

02

Pilot

A few volunteers from different teams live on the virtual desktop for a week, which is where the awkward printers, scanners and applications surface.

03

Build

Host pools, base image, profiles and access rules. The client is pushed to devices remotely through Intune.

04

Move

Teams switch across in groups, with a one-page guide and reinforced support during the first week.

The most expensive virtual desktop is the one that runs all night. Without autoscaling the hosts bill twenty-four hours a day while the team uses them for ten. A start and stop schedule, a cap on sessions per host and a quiet weekend cut the invoice noticeably, and nobody sees any difference on screen.

Questions and answers

It depends on concurrent users and on the software. An administrative user on a shared host normally works out cheaper than a dedicated Windows 365 seat, while a designer who needs a GPU costs a good deal more. After the analysis you receive a per-person figure with licences and infrastructure shown separately.

Most will, thanks to device redirection inside the session. Elderly document scanners and label printers cause the most trouble, which is why we test them during the pilot rather than after the whole company has moved. Card terminals stay wired locally.

For them a conventional laptop with BitLocker and Intune remains the better fit. A virtual desktop uses little bandwidth but needs the connection to hold. A field sales rep or a site manager therefore usually keeps a local machine.

On the technical side, yes. We set out how staff connect, which devices are permitted and how data is protected, so that HR and your legal adviser can fold that into the agreement or charter. Drafting the legal text itself is not our work.

Put a figure on virtual desktops

Tell us how many people work away from the office and which applications they use. We come back with a model and a monthly figure.

When we are around
Weekdays, 8:00 to 18:00 CET; answers land inside one working day
Talking it through
A call on Teams or Google Meet, whenever writing is not enough

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