Nerdio also announced a new integration with Teradici’s PCoIP, although this one is focused on Nerdio for Enterprise, which is not an MSP product.
Joseph Landes, Nerdio’s CRO
Nerdio, which makes Azure-focused management and optimization solutions, particularly for MSPs, has announced support for Microsoft’s newly announced Windows 365 offering. At the same time, they also announced support for Teradici’s PC over IP [PCoIP] technology, which had been heavily requested by customers.
Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop [AVD], formerly Windows Virtual Desktop, do much the same thing, but have significant differences in how they do them, which will appeal to different types of users.
“Weve seen over the past decades, that the potential for desktop virtualization has always been tremendous,” said Joseph Landes, Nerdio’s CRO. “At Nerdio we built our company around the concept that so few desktops are virtualized because of complexity. Windows 365, which was just announced at the Microsoft Inspire event this week, is a virtual desktop service that is part of Microsoft 365. It offers a fixed price subscription that’s dedicated to each specific Microsoft 365 user.”
Basically, AVD is for users who want more flexible alternatives, while Windows 365 appeals to those who want a simpler alternative.
“I think that AVD has done a lot for the desktop virtualization space,” Landes said. “It was a very big step forward for us as a Microsoft ISV. We have hundreds of thousands of users. About 95% of our users use AVD and 5% use RDS. But for some users, AVD is problematic, because it’s hard for them to predict the cost, and hard for them to budget. There is still some commercial complexity, because it is based on Azure consumption. Windows 365 is more like a SaaS model, with a fixed price.”
For that reason, Windows 365 is likely to appeal to smaller customers.
“I just talked with a large hoster, and I don’t see them moving onto Windows 365,” Landes said. “Alternatively, there are MSPs and smaller businesses who, when they need a new PC, will most likely just subscribe to Windows 365 instead of buying a new desktop.”
Both Nerdio Manager for MSP and Nerdio Manager for Enterprise, formerly known as Nerdio Manager for Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD), a non-multi-tenanted solution aimed at the enterprise market, now let users choose between Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365.
“We have a Nerdio Cost Estimator tool for MSPs that determines what it will cost them to be able to deploy an AVD environment and a Microsoft 365 environment, so they can choose the right one for their business model,” Landes said.
While the Windows 365 offering will draw the most attention because the product is splashy and brand new, Nerdio also announced a new integration with Teradic and their PCoIP technology. This one will apply to AVD deployments using Nerdio Manager for Enterprise.
“At Nerdio, our releases are customer and partner-driven,” Landes said. “Over the last six months, we ran into more customers who asked us for integration into Teradici’s PCoIP, particularly enterprises who want to engage in high-end graphic workloads. This is exciting because it opens up Nerdio to a broader base of clients.”
In addition to these integrations, Nerdio Manager for MSP has received several additional updates, including the ability to white label the management portal. MSPs can now brand the interface with their logo and colors and activate a dark mode theme.
The biggest update is the integration of Windows 365, however,” Landes said.
Landes also said MSPs should expect to see more features from the high end Nerdio Manager for Enterprise make their way into Nerdio MSP.
“Nerdio Manager for Enterprise came out before Nerdio MSP, and MSP asked us for the same stuff,” he indicated. “We will start to see a lot more of its functionality move into the MSP product over the next few months.”
Landes stressed that Microsoft’s move with Windows 365 makes it clear that all MSPs today should be moving toward the cloud, if they are not there already.
“[Microsoft CEO] Satya Nadella spent a lot of time at Inspire talking about digital transformation,” Landes said. “He emphasized that the world we lived in a few years ago doesn’t exist any more. For channel partners thinking about the cloud, now is the time. MSPs not transforming their business to the cloud are missing a generational opportunity. The time of installing servers at customer sites has passed. With Microsoft making these big investments in cloud, how can you not take that seriously?”
