AWS EUC @re:Invent: Best practices for migrating on-premises VDI workloads to the cloud

Organizations have used virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to protect their data for decades, creating a significant on-premises footprint of legacy hardware and software. Recent shifts toward remote work environments have accelerated the growth of VDI and also created an affinity for cloud-based virtual desktop solutions or desktop as a service (DaaS).

Join me in the AWS End User Computing re:Invent chalk talk, EUC308 Best practices for migrating on-premises VDI workloads to the cloud. This interactive chalk talk session is an opportunity to learn from AWS’s collective best practices, learnings, and fellow customer experiences. You’ll even have the opportunity to share your own experience so we can all grow. In this session I’ll provided cloud migration best practices that result in an appropriately secured, well architected, and cost-efficient manner whilst keeping your end users productive.

In this session, I help to address common questions including:

1. Does your organization struggle with the pace of execution to deliver a timely outcome?
2. Is latency a challenge for you? Keep in mind there are multiple forms of latency.
3. Are your user accessing data that is in AWS or on their laptops?
4. Have you picked the most appropriate technology solution to match your end user needs?
5. Do your end users need a full persistent desktop all the time, or do they need access to a high CPU and GPU instance for short, sharp periods of time to run a workflow in an application?

The common stakeholders I see that are pivotal to a migration project’s success include business and application owner across EUC, cloud, information security, networking, identity, and storage.

Other common hurdles I’ll address is the need to have a solid pilot to production pathway, which includes making sure you have a friendly power user from the business who is happy to lean-in with guidance and advice while the environment is being built. This is a crucial step as it helps with complex applications or customizations that need to happen, and then can help formulate a repeatable user acceptance test (UAT) plan to formalize approvals before the solution is rolled into production. Next, you want to slowly grow your user base with a select group of users who represent a broad population of users before scaling up and rolling out based on your business needs.

I’ll address these questions, dive deep into this common challenge, and help articulate where AWS solutions can support with automation. Join me in session EUC308 on Wednesday, November 30^th. Afterwards, be sure to RSVP and join in on the fun AWS End User Computing Reception hosted that same evening. See you at AWS re:Invent 2022.