What is our primary use case?
We use it primarily to provide virtual desktops to our end users, which allow them to access email, word processing, and other essential applications.
What is most valuable?
I like its familiarity. If you grew up Office environment, we use Outlook and software and everything, it's just familiar. Other than the initial login through the thin client, you don't even realize that you're on the virtual desktop. So it's just familiarity and ease of use.
It allows employees to log on to corporate resources remotely. But, we don't actually use the application publishing feature.
What needs improvement?
The current process I have to go through to get a Windows 11 VM up and running is difficult. Windows 10 worked a whole lot better than Windows 11.
For how long have I used the solution?
Probably about five years in its current form.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate it a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I've found it to be very scalable as long as took into consideration the number of users. If there is a sudden surge or drop of users, it might not scale as you like.
If you plan for your expected user base, it is not a problem. I tend to over-engineer my servers, so I've never run into problems like resource limitations. It's been both scalable and reliable for me.
I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. My current setup is, again, about 10 to 15, but in my past life, I've deployed it for over 150 people.
How are customer service and support?
The quality of the customer service and support depends upon what day of the week it is. They're very up and down with their support. Some days, I get really great support, and some days, it's not so great. So, on a scale of one to ten, I'd put them at a five.
It also depends upon what you're licensed for... I mean, if you're licensed for the top-level tier, which I was at my last job, the support was really great. But at this current job, we're not leveled at that level. So, I kind of know what's out there, and I'm left like the kid looking in the candy store with my nose against the window. And that's all because of budgeting and pricing. And I understand that.
Again, depending on who you get and what day you get them, you get great support. Or sometimes, if you get the summer intern, not so great support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
I would rate my experience with the initial setup an eight out of ten, with ten being the easiest. You do have to have knowledge. You have to know how to apply your licenses, allocate your resources, set up your drives, and everything.
We've built around it, so it integrates very well.
What about the implementation team?
Currently, it's just me, but in my past life, I had a team.
What was our ROI?
In my particular environment, dealing with classified networks, my biggest return on investment is being able to create a single image and deploy it multiple times rapidly.
When the updates come in, I only have to deploy them once instead of having to walk around to each machine because we're using them as virtual desktops. To me, that's really valuable because if I had to walk around to everybody's machine to apply a patch, that would be extremely inefficient.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I've never had an issue with it. I've always thought the pricing for RDS was reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend it, but depending on the scale of your operation and what you have.
So, like, if you're a small shop, one to two administrators, maybe ten to fifteen users, I would absolutely recommend it. If you start getting outside of that, you might want to start looking at other things because there's just some... well, actually, with the new PowerShell tools and everything, you could probably support up to more than that. But, again, it depends upon your needs and what your environment is going to be.
If you're going to be supporting thousands of people, I don't think I'd recommend it. But if you're just up to a hundred, I would recommend it.
Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.