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Working with Microsoft Azure RemoteApp

Terminal Server

Article from ADMIN 29/2015

By Christian Knermann

We describe the setup and functionality of Azure RemoteApp for providing Windows applications as a cloud service.

Microsoft uses the in-house Remote Desktop Services with Azure RemoteApp to provide Windows applications as a cloud service. It supports both Microsoft Office and applications of your choice that are compatible with Terminal Server. In this workshop, we show you what options are provided by the apps from the cloud and how to set them up with ease.

Terminal Server has been well known for a long time, but although it has become significantly easier to handle, many administrators still keep clear because, they argue, the technology and the licensing model are too complicated. Microsoft is now using the technology in the form of Azure RemoteApp [1] to host applications as software-as-a-service. The complexity of the required infrastructure remains largely hidden from users and administrators. I'll take a look at the range of functions before addressing the specific setup.

Cloud or Hybrid

The technical basis is the Remote Desktop Session Host role service from Windows Server 2012 R2. Users access the applications in the cloud via Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). All operating systems for which Microsoft offers RDP clients therefore come into play on the end devices. This applies to Apple's iOS and Mac OS X, as well as for Android, and of course various versions of Windows. In addition to Windows 7 and 8.x, Windows RT, Phone, ThinPC, and multiple versions of Windows Embedded for thin clients are included.

Microsoft offers cloud and hybrid deployments on the server side. The former include terminal servers that run independently in the cloud. You can log in using Microsoft accounts or using your own Active Directory accounts, if you pair it with the cloud using Azure AD. The typical use is a ready-made image from Microsoft using Office Professional Plus 2013. Neither the users nor the administrators have to worry about the

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