Azure Virtual Desktop (“AVD”): 6 Week Proof-of-Concept

As the certified Microsoft Solution Partner in Modern Work and Infrastructure Azure, Helient is dedicated to providing modern, secure, and agile solutions. Our team of experts is ready to help your organization establish robust Azure governance, accelerate your Azure strategy, and realize the benefits of AVD at scale. Azure Virtual Desktop (“AVD”) is the modern virtual desktop solution in the Microsoft Cloud that can scale effectively to thousands of users. Helient brings decades of our collective experience with traditional VDI to ensure our customers benefit from past lessons learned in virtualization solutions as well as the most recent best practices for Azure adoption. This solution delivers a design, working Proof-of-Concept and analysis of the POC when compared to defined success criteria.

Deliverables:

• System Design Specification (“SDS”): Describing the planned Proof of Concept solution (“POC”). The goal is to create a scalable best-practice POC that can be extended to support a full-scale implementation. The SDS will include:
  • Written description
  • Tables and diagrams describing the system design or configuration
  • High-level project plan including timelines, resources, success criteria, and projected costs for full-scale implementation.
• POC Deployment: Enabling hands-on experience for a representative subset of users working with the most important or commonly used applications.
• Post-deployment analysis: To assess POC success by measuring against pre-defined success criteria.

Agenda:

Week 1: Planning & Design

• Meet with Customer for up to two (2) one-hour-long planning and design sessions.
  • Plan Azure governance best practices:
    • Management groups and subscriptions
    • Resource naming and tagging standards.
    • Role based access (“RBAC”) for both Management groups and subscriptions.
    • Plan hybrid connectivity from on-premises to Azure. Assumes use of Site-to-site VPN for supporting POC deployment or use of Customer’s existing solution.
  • Plan for cost management and budget alerting.
  • Establish and document goals for AVD adoption.
  • Determine and document constraints.
  • Define AVD POC success criteria and metrics for success.
  • Select approach for POC design and deployment to support up to five (5) POC desktops.
  • Select Azure Data Center(s) for U.S. East and West coast users.
  • Produce System Design Specification (“SDS”).
  • Produce Azure monthly consumption estimate for POC phase.
  • Produce Azure monthly consumption estimate for full rollout.

Week 2: POC Deployment

• Deploy approved Azure design.
• Deploy AVD POC with Nerdio.
• Deploy Customer-supplied desktop image:
  • Generic baseline image, no application configuration included.
  • Ensure Microsoft Teams optimization for up to five (total) endpoints.
• Handover to Customer ready for POC user(s).

Week 2 to 5: Customer-led POC adoption

• Opportunity for Customer to adopt POC and evaluate against success criteria.

Week 6: Analysis & Review

• Upon completion of the POC testing, evaluate against success criteria and metrics.
• Update the Azure Consumption Estimate to project the estimate for full rollout.