Nutanix has announced support for the general availability of Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) Hybrid with Nutanix AHV, giving organizations greater choice over where their virtual desktops and data run.

The support enables organizations to run Azure Virtual Desktop session hosts on premises while continuing to use Microsoft’s cloud-based control plane for identity, access and session brokering.

Nutanix has been involved in the Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid initiative from the outset as a launch ecosystem partner. The company helped bring Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid support to the Nutanix AHV hypervisor.

The hybrid deployment model is designed for organizations looking to modernize desktop delivery while retaining greater control over infrastructure and data. It is particularly relevant to regulated industries where data residency, digital sovereignty, security, latency, performance and infrastructure economics can influence where workloads run.

With Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid on Nutanix, the Azure Virtual Desktop control plane remains in Azure, while session hosts run on Nutanix AHV in the customer’s data center.

In addition, Azure Arc connects the session hosts into the Azure environment, helping maintain the Azure-based identity, policy and management experience. Users can authenticate through Microsoft Entra ID, while organizations retain control over areas including VM capacity, lifecycle management, networking, storage, disaster recovery and automation on AHV.

Organizations can also choose how they manage the environment. Teams with established scripting and automation skills can use Nutanix APIs and tools to manage Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid directly.

Meanwhile, organizations looking to reduce operational effort can use Nerdio Manager to automate and centralize tasks. These include VM provisioning, lifecycle management, power management, image and patch updates, policy management and autoscaling.

The deployment also allows organizations to run Azure Virtual Desktop session hosts on premises on Nutanix AHV while retaining Microsoft’s Azure-based control plane.

Furthermore, the model supports data residency and digital sovereignty objectives by keeping desktops and data within customer-controlled environments. Azure Arc and Microsoft Entra ID help maintain a consistent identity, policy and management experience across the hybrid environment.

The platform supports Windows Server multi-session and Windows 11 Enterprise single-session. Windows 11 multi-session remains exclusive to Azure and Azure Local.

Organizations can also choose between API-driven management and automated orchestration with Nerdio Manager. This gives IT teams flexibility to balance cloud capabilities with existing infrastructure investments, operational control, performance requirements and cost considerations.

“Customer choice and flexibility are at the core of Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid. Nutanix’s support helps organizations extend the benefits of Azure Virtual Desktop to environments that align with their operational and business requirements, enabling a smoother path to modernization while preserving existing investments,” said Bhavya Chopra, Partner Director, Product Management, Microsoft.

“The value for customers is straightforward. They no longer have to choose between using Azure Virtual Desktop and maintaining control over where their desktops run. If compliance, data sovereignty, latency or cost means those workloads need to stay on premises, they can run them on Nutanix AHV while still using Microsoft’s Azure Virtual Desktop services. It gives IT teams a more practical way to modernize without forcing every workload into the same model,” said Tarkan Maner, President at Nutanix.

For additional details, organizations can download the Nutanix Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid Solution Brief and visit www.nutanix.com/microsoft for more information about the Nutanix and Microsoft partnership.

Read the Nutanix blog for further details on Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid availability and support.

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