Ignite 2020 Recap: Windows Virtual Desktop One Year In

Microsoft sure knows how to put on a show. Ignite 2020 was no exception. I remember well my first Microsoft event as an employee back in 2006. It was called MGX back then for Microsoft Global Exchange, now it is known as Ready. There were motorcycles on stage, fireworks, lots of terrific content and the usual excitement that comes with celebrating a great fiscal year and kicking off a new one.

Obviously Ignite 2020 was a virtual show due to the pandemic. But Microsoft didn’t disappoint, delivering a great event in a virtual format, replete with outstanding content. Satya’s keynote was superb as usual, I particularly loved seeing the evolution of MS Flight Simulator over the last 40 years as a metaphor of how much technology has evolved. I remember playing that game on my PC XT as a kid and thinking how unbelievable it was back then. I don’t think anyone could’ve imagined back then what the 2020 version would deliver, backed by the power of Azure and the internet. Check out the video here.

Windows Virtual Desktop and the IGEL – Microsoft Partnership

At IGEL we’ve been very excited about our building partnership with Microsoft, especially since Windows Virtual Desktop launched at Ignite 2019 last November. We were privileged to be a launch partner of this great new service and It’s been an unprecedented year since then.

Since that event, we’ve seen mounting interest in virtualizing desktops and desktop workloads, and the pandemic has only caused this demand to increase. This didn’t go unnoticed during Ignite 2020. In fact, specific to End User Compute, there was quite a bit of content related to Windows Virtual Desktop that I encourage anyone interested in to watch on demand. Some highlights I would suggest:

• Enable Secure Remote Work Quickly with Windows Virtual Desktop, led by Kam VedBrat
• Windows Virtual Desktop Updates, presented by Kam VedBrat and Jeremy Chapman which discussed the rapid pace in both demand and innovation of the WVD service.
• The Ask the Expert sessions, such as this Ask Us Anything on Windows Virtual Desktop, are also worth watching. There were some great questions and insights for and from the panel.

More generally, I really enjoyed the future of work sessions, the plethora of security-oriented sessions as well as those focused on endpoint management including MEM and Intune as well as some of the new Teams features and of course the keynotes.

To learn more about what you may have missed during Ignite 2020, check out this video featuring IGEL CMO, Simon Townsend and Microsoft GBB, Christiaan Brinkhoff. Watch it now:

All in all, it was a truly great show by Microsoft. Here’s hoping we can do it in person again next year. But before that, it seems there will be a virtual Ignite part 2 in early 2021 that we can all look forward to.