Clarity on Cloud: Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) - Why people are really leaving Citrix (and what they're not being told)
A Clarity on Cloud blog by our CEO, Helen Gerling
Let’s cut through the noise.
Organisations aren’t moving from Citrix to Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) because it’s trendy. They’re moving because the economics and control model have shifted.
But AVD isn’t magic. And if you treat it like a lift-and-shift replacement for Citrix, you’ll get burned.
Here’s what’s actually going on.
Why organisations are moving to AVD
1. The Licensing Conversation Finally Broke
For many, this started with cost.
Citrix licensing has become:
More complex
More bundled
More expensive
Less negotiable
Particularly following the acquisition of Citrix and subsequent commercial model changes.
AVD flips the model.
If you already have:
Microsoft 365 E3/E5
Windows E3/E5
Or appropriate RDS CAL rights
You often already own the entitlement.
That’s a very different board-level conversation:
“We’re paying twice for the same control plane.”
That’s usually the trigger. But cost isn’t the only driver.
For many organisations, the trigger wasn’t technical dissatisfaction. It was commercial re-evaluation.
2. Control Plane vs Infrastructure Ownership
With Citrix Cloud, you’re still running infrastructure. With on-prem Citrix, you’re running a LOT of infrastructure!
With AVD:
Microsoft runs the control plane.
You run the session hosts.
Identity is native Azure AD (Entra ID).
Conditional Access just works.
Defender integrates properly.
Intune integrates properly.
It’s not just VDI. It’s an extension of your Microsoft estate.
That simplification matters more than people admit.
3. Security and Zero Trust Alignment
Security teams are often the quiet force behind the move.
AVD fits naturally into:
Conditional Access
MFA enforcement
Identity-based access control
Defender for Cloud
Defender for Endpoint
Entra ID PIM
Citrix can do similar things, but AVD doesn’t require glue.
That reduction in “security stitching” is significant.
4. Elasticity and Consumption Economics
Citrix environments were traditionally built for peak.
AVD can scale to demand - properly configured.
Autoscaling
Pooled host pools
Start/stop VM schedules
Multi-session Windows 10/11
If you're running a workforce that fluctuates (legal case teams, NHS admin spikes, seasonal insurance processing), this matters.
But here’s where we need to slow down.
The 'gotchas' nobody puts on their slide deck
AVD is not a silver bullet. Here are the things that trip people up.
Gotcha #1: FSLogix is not optional - and it’s not trivial
User profile management in AVD typically relies on FSLogix.
If you:
Under-spec storage
Misconfigure profile containers
Ignore IOPS requirements
Use cheap Azure Files tiers incorrectly
You’ll get:
Slow logons
Corrupt profiles
Random instability
User frustration
FSLogix is infrastructure engineering, not a checkbox.
Gotcha #2: Networking design is everything
Latency kills VDI.
Common mistakes:
Overcomplicated hub-and-spoke routing
NVAs inserted unnecessarily
Firewall inspection in the wrong place
No proximity placement groups
Cross-region identity lookups
AVD performance issues are usually network architecture issues.
If you design it like legacy Citrix, you’re importing yesterday’s problems.
Gotcha #3: It’s not automatically cheaper
I’ve seen AVD estates that cost more than the Citrix estate they replaced.
Why?
Oversized VMs
No autoscaling
Hosts left running 24/7
No Reserved Instances or Savings Plans
Premium storage everywhere “just in case”
No host density optimisation
Full desktop pools where users only need one or two apps
Legacy, resource-hungry applications dragged in without rationalisation
AVD is consumption-based. Consumption without governance becomes expensive quickly.
You need cost engineering - not just deployment.
Gotcha #4: Application rationalisation is usually ignored
Many organisations migrate:
1:1 app stacks
Legacy dependencies
Unused software
Old middleware layers
AVD is an opportunity to rationalise.
Instead, many just replicate.
If you're carrying technical debt into AVD, you’re just moving it to Azure.
Gotcha #5: Operational ownership shifts
With Citrix, you often had a Citrix team.
With AVD, responsibility fragments:
Azure platform team
Identity team
EUC team
Security team
Networking team
If you don’t define clear ownership, things fall between the cracks.
AVD requires cloud-operating-model maturity.
It’s not just “VDI in Azure”.
Gotcha #6: Multi-session doesn’t fix bad apps
Windows 10/11 multi-session is powerful.
But:
Not all applications behave well.
Not all vendors support it.
Some licensing models break.
Some line-of-business apps were never designed for concurrency.
You must test properly. Not assume.
The real reason AVD wins
AVD wins when:
You’re already a Microsoft-first organisation.
You want to collapse tooling sprawl.
You want security and identity consistency.
You want elastic compute economics.
You’re comfortable operating in Azure properly.
It loses when:
You treat it as a like-for-like Citrix swap.
You ignore cloud cost management.
You underestimate profile and storage engineering.
You don’t modernise applications alongside it.
The honest bottom line
AVD isn’t better because it’s newer.
It’s better when it aligns with your wider Microsoft strategy.
If you’re running:
M365
Entra ID
Defender
Intune
Azure-native infrastructure
Then AVD reduces moving parts.
If you’re not - and you're hybrid, fragmented, or politically siloed - AVD can feel messy.
The organisations succeeding with AVD aren’t chasing hype.
They’re simplifying.
And they’re treating it as:
A cloud platform decision - not a desktop decision.
That’s the difference between a migration and a simplification strategy.
As one of the UK’s leading Azure specialists, AVD is the stuff of deep domain expertise. Lean on us to help you assess, migrate to and manage your AVD platform, drawing on proven architectures, critical tooling such as Nerdio, and all the lessons learned from a wealth of delivery projects.
Book a call today to learn more about our Azure Virtual Desktop services and free workshops.