Azure Virtual Desktop is gaining popularity, with an increasing number of customers utilizing the Microsoft solution. As good as AVD is, some challenges remain for IT. User support, imaging, deployment, and maintenance are still regular tasks for IT.

Hydra for Azure Virtual Desktop simplifies and partially automates these tasks. In the session, we create images with a click, bypass the challenges of Sysprep, scale in all directions, and automate the management of the environment.

And that's not all: The easy-to-use script and collection engine allow admins to simply automate tasks, such as Windows updates, application updates, and more. In comparison to native AVD, Hydra will not shut down a host while an automation/update is running.

Good to know: Hydra was acquired by Login VSI in May 2025 and now offers enterprise support for customers.

Hydra is free for environments with up to 5 hosts per pool without further restrictions.