AVD vs W365- Licensing and Infrastructure

As we discussed in the previous blog, giving a gist, we looked at the user experience of both the Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 from an IT Admin’s perspective and from an End-User Perspective.

Now in order to deploy the particular service, there are certain prerequisites in terms of licenses and cost that needs to be fulfilled in order to deploy successfully and have the users and IT Admins to have a flawless experience.

Let’s dig deeper into the costings.

Licensing and Infrastructure costs

Let us compare the Licensing and Infrastructure costs for deploying an Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 Cloud PC.

Windows 10 Enterprise

Azure Virtual Desktop requires the user connecting to an AVD session to have an assigned Windows 10 Enterprise subscription license (e.g., Windows 10 Ent E3/E5/VDA) or be included as part of a Windows 365 suite subscription (e.g., M365 E3/E5 and Business Premium)

This Windows subscription license includes the usage rights of the AVD control plane and entitles the user to connect to Windows 10 desktops hosted in Azure

Both Enterprise and Business Windows 365 cloud PCs require a Windows 10 Enterprise subscription just like AVD desktops. However, the compute costs are not purchased as usage-based Azure resources but rather as an M365 license SKU

Compute and Storage

Azure Virtual Desktop infrastructure costs are based on Azure consumption. This includes the compute costs of running AVD session host VMs, the cost of OS disks and the usage of Azure Files for FSLogix storage. There is no cost if the VM is powered off.

Windows 365 cloud PCs are purchased as licenses through Windows 365. Each cloud PC license provides the user with a certain amount of computing, RAM, and storage capacity.

Intune

Intune can be optionally used to manage Azure Virtual Desktop session hosts. However, Intune is not required for an AVD deployment, and most environments are managed via images.

Enterprise cloud PCs require an Intune license. Since Intune is the management interface for these cloud PCs, the Azure AD tenant must have an Intune license and each user who is assigned to an Enterprise cloud PC must have an Intune license assigned.

Whereas Business cloud PCs are not managed through MEM and therefore do not require an Intune license.

Windows 365 Apps (Office)

Azure Virtual Desktop requires a subscription to Windows 365 Apps with Shared Computer Activation entitlement. All Microsoft 365 packages that include Office Apps have Shared Computer Activation. Windows 365 Business standalone does not and, therefore, cannot be used in AVD.

Windows 365 cloud PCs are dedicated VMs and therefore do not require Shared Computer Activation. Any subscription to Microsoft 365 is sufficient.

Hope these blogs gave you a clear picture of the comparison between Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) vs Windows 365 (W365).

To get a better understanding of how Azure Virtual Desktop works, you can check the documentation Azure Virtual Desktop

For better understanding on Windows 365, You can check out the documentation Windows 365

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