Tuesday 13 May 2014

Microsoft Azure RemoteApp

A new service from Microsoft that delivers Windows applications from the Azure cloud. Azure RemoteApp features the high fidelity, WAN-ready user experience of RDP and RemoteFX, builds on the proven Remote Desktop Services infrastructure in Windows Server, and leverages Azure’s global scale and utility-grade reliability as a leading cloud provider, providing a finished, turn-key service that offers Windows applications as a service accessible from anywhere.

Join the preview today: http://remoteapp.azure.com

Key Features

End-user Experience
Those of you familiar with RemoteApp in Windows Server will instantly recognize the user experience in Azure RemoteApp: While the application is running remotely, it appears to the user as if it is running locally on the client device. Azure RemoteApp uses RDP, a WAN ready protocol that is resilient to network latency and loss. The applications are delivered with a high fidelity, fast and fluid user experience appropriate for a variety of interactive scenarios and content, from routine text input to multimedia.

Supported Clients
With this announcement, we are releasing a brand new Microsoft RemoteApp app for Windows, and we are also issuing updates to our Microsoft Remote Desktop apps for iOS and Android to support Azure RemoteApp. We will soon add Azure RemoteApp support to our client apps for Mac, Windows Phone and Windows RT as well.

Persistent Storage for Users
Azure RemoteApp provides users with 50GB persistent storage. This storage is backed by highly reliable, fault tolerant Azure Storage and it is persistent.

Windows Server 2012R2 Session Virtualization
Azure RemoteApp builds on the Remote Desktop Services capabilities of Windows Server. Users share common underlying infrastructure through Session Virtualization, which provides for a highly efficient application hosting environment.

Office 2013 Preinstalled
Office is arguably the most important and prevalent application suite out there. During the preview, we are offering Microsoft Office 2013 ProPlus preinstalled with Azure RemoteApp.

Dynamic Scalability
Azure RemoteApp is built on Azure’s scalable fabric and extends it by providing a platform-as-a-service environment for Windows apps. This environment is dynamically scalable, expanding or shrinking capacity in real time in response to user connections. With traditional desktop virtualization deployments, capacity planning and capital expenditures are a major concern. In contrast, with Azure RemoteApp, you do not need to invest in expensive hardware and you get dynamic scalability built-in.

Global Presence
Azure RemoteApp benefits from Azure’s global network of datacenters. At preview, we are offering Azure RemoteApp in six regions: US West, US East, Western Europe, North Europe, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Two Deployment Choices: Cloud-only and Hybrid

More information can be found here;