Windows Virtual Desktop lets your clients enjoy a full desktop experience on any device. By using Microsoft-approved service value-adds such as Nerdio or CloudJumper, a WVD deployment is guaranteed to run smoother. But which one is better?
Both of these WVD migration tools boast a similar mission that can help your client get set up and fully functioning after their deployment. CloudJumper’s main concern is improving your users’ workspaces with their cloud solution, while Nerdio’s mission goes beyond the automation process by empowering IT professionals to utilize their Azure subscriptions and other Microsoft Cloud subscriptions effectively after deployment.
Each tool has unique advantages to its deployment experience. CloudJumper is cloud-agnostic and can deploy multiple implementations in Azure, Google, AWS and a hybrid cloud. It hosts a full suite of products geared toward managing each layer of the automation process called its Cloud Workspace Management Suite (CWMS).
Nerdio boasts a more modern and holistic IT management console for all your clients’ Microsoft Cloud subscriptions. Another advantage of Nerdio’s solution is that it doesn’t lock your clients into its services. Instead, Nerdio offers a way to “try before you buy” in a fully functional AD environment.
Deployment time and customization
But how do these two solutions stack up to each other in terms of WVD deployment and customization when they each use native connectivity to Azure?
With CWMS, CloudJumper is very customizable and focused on the user workspace. It isn’t an out-of-the-box solution. It’s made to fit right into the client’s existing environment. This is beneficial when deploying WVD, but it’s problematic when it has to be extracted from the machines. Conversely, Nerdio can revert back to your client’s old environment in less than 60 seconds if a problem arises.
Nerdio for Azure can complete your client’s deployment in less than two hours and within a few clicks. It’s not as customizable as CloudJumper’s automated deployment, but is that really a con when CloudJumper comes with user limitations and less admin functionality? Nerdio boasts no functionality limitations whatsoever. Furthermore, because CloudJumper’s experience is so customized, IT professionals have to do a lot of manual work on the backend to support their client’s WVD environment going forward.
Performance and cost savings
Utilizing a WVD deployment tool should optimize your clients’ workspace performance and offer cost savings for your clients. These two components are significant determinants of which solution is superior. Both Nerdio and CloudJumper use technology that scales to meet the demand of a client’s workforce.
CloudJumper has its “Wake-on-Demand” technology, but it’s not seamless. Instead, it heavily relies on custom backplanes, which are routed through to wake desktops “on demand.” This can be detrimental to customers because if the backplanes suffer outages, they can create large-scale disruptions for global users. On the other hand, CloudJumper uses its automated workload scheduling tool to configure policies that can manage users’ access to desktops. But that seems like a direct contradiction to its hibernate and wake capabilities, which are supposed to give users access to the WVD even when unscheduled.
Nerdio offers Ephemeral OS disk support for every user (at no extra cost) that lets them scale set resources on an event basis. Plus, unlike CloudJumper, Nerdio doesn’t use custom backplanes. Scaling resources isn’t the only way these two platforms control costs for your clients. Nerdio can provide an anticipated cost analysis using Azure Cost Estimator, which groups your clients’ Azure consumption and licenses for Office 365, Windows 10, and Nerdio together to be viewed at a glance.
The management console
In terms of managing the customer’s IT environment, both CloudJumper and Nerdio host a simplified, multi-tenant management console. They both give IT professionals a way to manage multiple Microsoft Azure subscriptions and permissions across user accounts and departments.
Nerdio takes it a step further, though, by giving IT an outlook on all IT components, such as users, desktops, servers, storage, and e-mail. Nerdio even gives your client’s end users more independence with their own desktop management portal. Another significant difference in these consoles is that Nerdio’s management portal was made with modernity in mind. It mimics the way IT professionals need to manage virtual desktop systems today.
The same cannot be said for CloudJumper’s seasoned management tool. It still has a single pane of glass that shows different components, like the networks, users, apps, and backups. But because CloudJumper’s solution has been around for two decades, it shows in the way its console is slow, sometimes unresponsive, and has non-intuitive placements of UI elements.
Looking for more?
Although the answer is subjective, when you take a look at the functionality and support of each of these solutions, it seems like a no-brainer. Nerdio proves itself to be the better tool! Contact us today for more information on how Nerdio for Azure will help your business.
