Win Remote Desktop Services SAL

Our main use case for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services  is to allow multiple users to remotely access our Windows machine, desktop, or application over the internet and our network.

The best features Microsoft Remote Desktop Services  offers include the ability to work remotely or use a virtual desktop, centralized application hosting, and securing access to a machine for internal service and call center or enterprise environments.

We rely mostly on remote work and virtual desktop functionality to access the office environment remotely, along with centralized application hosting to run heavy applications on servers while users access the lightweight Windows machine in a secured way.

Centralizing management and access has helped our team by improving productivity.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services can be improved in several areas. Currently, it requires a license cost, it has performance limits on shared resources with bottlenecks, the setup is complex, and it is not ideal for graphics-heavy applications.

I have been using Microsoft Remote Desktop Services for about one year.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is stable.

The scalability of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is good.

The customer support for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is good.

Using Microsoft Remote Desktop Services, we are able to centralize the management of applications and desktops in one place, allowing multiple users to access the same machine. We can also implement gateway and encryption on that and integrate Active Directory.

The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the pricing is based on licensing costs and the setup is complex.

What advice I would give to others looking into using Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is to consider its features carefully. I would rate this product an 8.

My main use case for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services  is remoting into computers that I don't have physical access to in order to assist or perform configurations, or remoting into our servers to do day-to-day work.

The best features Microsoft Remote Desktop Services  offers include easy connection to the devices on the same network and easy connection to the devices over VPN.

The easy connection over VPN in Microsoft Remote Desktop Services helps my team significantly, especially when they are working from home and need to remote connect to our servers. Using remote desktop services and connecting to a VPN allows us to connect without having to use third-party tools.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services has positively impacted my organization by helping us function efficiently when we're not physically at certain machines.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services could be improved by providing a way to make it configurable without using VPN from the actual service itself.

I have been using Microsoft Remote Desktop Services for ten years.

In my experience, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is stable.

The scalability of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services for my organization is fine. It is used more so for back-end machines and for very specific support, so as we grow, we still use it the same amount.

I previously used TeamViewer  before switching to Microsoft Remote Desktop Services.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services has been easy. I don't think there was any cost, as this was built into our experience with Windows and Azure .

I have seen a return on investment with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services, as it has sped up a lot of our support.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services has saved us considerable time because we don't have to be on-site for support and have more accessibility to the machines.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services has been easy. I don't think there was any cost, as this was built into our experience with Windows and Azure .

I switched from TeamViewer  to Microsoft Remote Desktop Services because Microsoft's integrated products are easier to use and support.

My advice to others looking into using Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is that it's an easy piece of software that's integrated with Windows and other services offered by Microsoft, making the cost of entry and support straightforward. I would rate this product an eight out of ten.

My main use case for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services  is when data is highly secure and country sensitive, so it needs to stay within one data center and only individuals who have access to that country-only data can use it. Rather than having the data locally on my laptop, which could be insecure, only specific users have the ability to connect to these servers to view the data, so the data can be seen on my local laptop, but it never actually exists on the laptop. It is just the pixels being transmitted to me. I have used it for security reasons.

To view customer data and validate that it was sent correctly to a server, I have used Microsoft Remote Desktop Services , so rather than the data existing on my laptop, I would connect to that server to then validate the data.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services offers several best features, including the security aspect because sensitive data stays within the server in the data center. It is only really the UI; the pixels are transmitted to myself and other users, making it brilliant for data residency because the data never exists and is never sent to my laptop. I am just viewing it from connecting to the server within a specific place, which is great for data sovereignty.

It is also advantageous for managing lots of users because I can have one massive, powerful server with loads of different users connecting to the same server to share resources, and from a scalability perspective, the IT team managing the application can keep it up to date and maintain it on one server, which is then transmitted to everyone connecting to it, rather than having the application exist on everyone's machines with all of those needing updates.

From the security perspective of using Microsoft Remote Desktop Services, the fact that the data never exists on my laptop and is always centralized in just one place on that one server is great because it means there is a much lower chance of data being leaked, especially if it needs to stay within the country. It highly reduces the risk of the data being sent accidentally to individuals outside of the country, which could break compliance.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services has positively impacted my organization by increasing our security.

I have noticed the increase in security from using Microsoft Remote Desktop Services through improved compliance, as we are able to confirm 100 percent that data which needs to stay within the country does so because it only exists on the server. Then we connect to the server to view the data, but it never leaves the server, allowing us to hit 100 percent compliance very easily without worrying if someone can accidentally send the data somewhere else.

From the compliance perspective, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services has provided a massive compliance benefit, as we are able to ascertain 100 percent that data stays within the country because it stays on the server.

I understand from the IT team managing Microsoft Remote Desktop Services that it is complex to set up the multiple roles, certificates, and networks required. Networking is quite complicated. Even though on the data center side it is quite simple, maintaining the farm of other connections that connect to that server is the complex piece. I understand there are more modern systems replicating what this solution does, which are easier to use, such as Azure Virtual Desktop  within Microsoft Azure  Cloud or Amazon WorkSpaces , which I have used before. Rather than having to manage all the complex networking, you could abstract it away a little further in the cloud for easier use. I also understand that this tool is in an end-of-life state now, with Microsoft actively pushing people towards Azure Virtual Desktop  or Windows 365.

I do not believe further features will be rolled out due to its end-of-life state, making it a legacy solution now.

I have used Microsoft Remote Desktop Services for around one year.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is stable, as I have never had any instability issues.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services scales very well; I could scale it to however many users I would want. From the functionality perspective, it is fine, but from the cost and operations perspective, it gets quite difficult because I have to purchase numerous licenses and track them. So while it is possible to scale very easily, it is complex to manage that scaling.

I have interacted with Microsoft customer support before; their support is fine, but I would not say it is the best in the industry. I have noticed, along with other team members, that when trying to reach Microsoft for customer support, it has to go through many different teams to reach the right place, leading to delays. In contrast, interacting with Amazon's customer support seems to route the request to the correct team almost immediately, resulting in quicker responses.

In a different organization, I have used Amazon WorkSpaces , which is a good tool that makes it easier to manage because it is within the cloud, with much of the networking and overall management abstracted away. However, I found that there was a big latency issue with WorkSpaces, and if there was a connection error, I could not access my desktop environment, causing significant problems. Therefore, I feel that Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is a bit more reliable.

I did not evaluate other options before choosing Microsoft Remote Desktop Services.

I was not involved in the pricing and licensing perspective, so I cannot speak too much on that. However, I know that two license types are needed: the Windows Server  license and another client license. I understand it can get quite expensive and also complex to manage these different licenses.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is a good tool that does what it is meant to do, and from a security perspective, it is brilliant. However, there is a lot of overhead with managing it, which modern tools do not have, especially tools that exist in the cloud. Also, it is in an end-of-life state right now, so there probably will not be any new features rolled out, and one issue is that you have to have Windows server licenses to use it, as well as an additional license type for every user or device that connects to the server. This can be expensive and complex to track from the licensing perspective.

I would advise others looking into using Microsoft Remote Desktop Services that it is a good tool to use, but I would not recommend starting to use it nowadays because it is in end-of-life support. Azure Virtual Desktop  or Windows 365 is probably the better way to go since they are more modern tools. For what it is, it is a good tool; it is just being phased out as a legacy piece now.

I rate Microsoft Remote Desktop Services an 8 out of 10.